27. Gap Analysis

Chapter Contents
27.1 Introduction | 27.2 Suggested Steps | 27.3 Example

The technique known as gap analysis is widely used in the TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM) to validate an architecture that is being developed. The basic premise is to highlight a shortfall between the Baseline Architecture and the Target Architecture; that is, items that have been deliberately omitted, accidentally left out, or not yet defined.

27.1 Introduction

A key step in validating an architecture is to consider what may have been forgotten. The architecture must support all of the essential information processing needs of the organization. The most critical source of gaps that should be considered is stakeholder concerns that have not been addressed in prior architectural work.

Potential sources of gaps include:

27.2 Suggested Steps

The suggested steps are as follows:

When the exercise is complete, anything under "Eliminated" or "New" is a gap, which should either be explained as correctly eliminated, or marked as to be addressed by reinstating or developing/procuring the function.

27.3 Example

Figure 27-1 shows an example analysis for ABBs that are services from the Network Services category of the Technical Reference Model (TRM), and shows a number of services from the Baseline Architecture missing from the Target Architecture.


Figure 27-1: Gap Analysis Example

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Downloads of TOGAF®, an Open Group Standard, are available under license from the TOGAF information web site. The license is free to any organization wishing to use the TOGAF standard entirely for internal purposes (for example, to develop an information system architecture for use within that organization). A book is also available (in hardcopy and pdf) from The Open Group Bookstore as document G116.