Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Challenges with TOGAF

Some problems with TOGAF:

Process not a project - People tend to think of it a cyclic set of sequential steps (like a SDLC waterfall) rather than a continuous process with parallel contemporaneous steps (more like an agile approach to development). Iteration is an attempt to overcome the limitations of waterfall approaches and allow management gateways to be implemented; and static artefacts (documents) to be used as the means of communication. This is probably because it is overly oriented toward solutions architecture (and arcane languages like UML).

A generic approach not a specific way to do anything - It is a generic approach that doesn't say specifically what to do to solve any specific business problem, or deliver specific business value. That is not to say it isn't correct - it is to say it is hard to follow.

A method unimplementable without a solution - It is like teaching someone the principles of accounting and then asking to do the accounting for a large organization using Word and Visio to create the invoices and do the reporting.

Continuous change and dynamic architecture - Yes. Versioning is not the answer, the answer is that all people all access information and that artefacts are produced dynamically representing the current understanding.

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