Tool

Glossary

45 terms you'll meet in EA work and the TOGAF exams.

ADM (Architecture Development Method) TOGAF: TOGAF's iterative method for developing and managing architecture: Preliminary, phases A–H, plus Requirements Management at the center. Related module →
Application Portfolio Management (APM) Portfolio: Maintaining an inventory of applications with their cost, value, technical health, and ownership, to drive rationalization. Related module →
ArchiMate Modeling: An Open Group modeling language for EA, with layers (business, application, technology) and aspects (active structure, behavior, passive structure). Related module →
Architectural Runway Lean/Agile: In SAFe, the existing code, components, and infrastructure needed to deliver near-term features without excessive redesign. Related module →
Architecture Board Governance: A cross-organizational body that oversees architecture: approves standards, resolves conflicts, and grants dispensations. Related module →
Architecture Content Framework TOGAF: TOGAF's structured model of the outputs architecture work produces, classified as deliverables, artifacts, and building blocks. Related module →
Architecture Contract Governance: A joint agreement between architecture and delivery teams on what will be built, to what standards, and how compliance is checked. Related module →
Architecture Decision Record (ADR) Lean/Agile: A short document capturing one significant decision: its context, the options considered, the decision made, and its consequences. Related module →
Architecture Principle Governance: A durable rule or guideline that informs architecture decisions. TOGAF principles have a name, statement, rationale, and implications. Related module →
Architecture Repository TOGAF: The store of architecture outputs: the metamodel, capability, landscape, standards, reference library, governance log, and more. Related module →
Architecture Vision TOGAF: A high-level, aspirational view of the target architecture produced in ADM Phase A, used to gain stakeholder buy-in and scope the work. Related module →
Baseline Architecture Core: The current-state description of an architecture. TOGAF's name for 'as-is'. Related module →
BIZBOK Business Architecture: The Business Architecture Body of Knowledge from the Business Architecture Guild, covering capability, value stream, information, and organization mapping. Related module →
Building Block TOGAF: A reusable component of capability. Architecture Building Blocks (ABBs) describe what is needed; Solution Building Blocks (SBBs) describe how it is delivered. Related module →
Business Capability Business Architecture: What an organization does or can do, independent of who does it or how, e.g. 'Customer Onboarding' or 'Payment Processing'. Related module →
C4 Model Modeling: Simon Brown's lightweight approach to diagramming software at four zoom levels: Context, Containers, Components, and Code. Related module →
Capability Map Business Architecture: A hierarchical, stable model of all business capabilities, often heat-mapped to show investment, maturity, or risk. Related module →
Chief Architect Roles: The leader of the architecture function, typically accountable to the CIO/CTO for architecture direction and governance. Related module →
Concern Core: An interest a stakeholder has in a system, such as cost, security, or time to market. Views are chosen to address concerns. Related module →
Conway's Law Core: Systems tend to mirror the communication structures of the organizations that build them; architecture and org design are linked. Related module →
Dispensation Governance: A time-limited, approved exception allowing a project to deviate from an architecture standard. Related module →
Domain Architect Roles: An architect who owns one domain across the enterprise, such as data, security, integration, or business. Related module →
Enterprise Architecture (EA) Core: The discipline of describing how an organization's business, information, applications, and technology fit together today, how they should fit in future, and guiding the changes to get there. Related module →
Enterprise Continuum TOGAF: TOGAF's way of classifying architecture and solution assets from generic (foundation) to organization-specific, to help reuse. Related module →
Fitness Function Lean/Agile: An objective, ideally automated, check of how well a system meets an architectural characteristic, such as latency or dependency rules. Related module →
Gap Analysis Core: Comparing baseline and target architectures to identify what must be added, changed, or removed. Related module →
Guardrail Lean/Agile: A boundary teams can work within without asking permission, often automated. A lighter alternative to approval gates. Related module →
Operating Model Business Architecture: How an organization delivers value: the integration and standardization of its processes, data, and organization. Related module →
Pace-Layered Architecture Portfolio: Gartner's model classifying applications as Systems of Record, Differentiation, or Innovation, each changing at a different rate. Related module →
Paved Road / Golden Path Lean/Agile: A well-supported default way of building and running software that makes the right choice the easy choice. Related module →
Preliminary Phase TOGAF: The ADM phase that prepares the organization for architecture work: defines the EA capability, principles, framework tailoring, and governance. Related module →
Reference Architecture Core: A reusable template solution for a recurring problem, e.g. 'event-driven integration', that teams adapt rather than reinvent. Related module →
Requirements Management TOGAF: The central, continuous ADM process that captures architecture requirements and manages their flow through every phase. Related module →
Solution Architect Roles: An architect responsible for the design of a specific solution or program, working within enterprise direction. Related module →
Stakeholder Core: Anyone with an interest in, or concerns about, an architecture or the outcomes it affects. Related module →
Target Architecture Core: The desired future state of an architecture, the 'to-be'. Usually described at several levels of detail. Related module →
Technical Debt Core: The future cost of rework created by choosing an expedient solution now. EA manages it at portfolio rather than codebase scale. Related module →
Technology Radar Lean/Agile: A visual, regularly updated view of technologies classified as Adopt, Trial, Assess, or Hold. Related module →
TIME Model Portfolio: Gartner's classification for application rationalization: Tolerate, Invest, Migrate, Eliminate. Related module →
TOGAF TOGAF: The Open Group Architecture Framework: a widely used, vendor-neutral EA framework built around the ADM, a content framework, and guidance on governance and capability. Related module →
Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Portfolio: The full lifetime cost of a solution: licenses, infrastructure, people, support, and decommissioning. Related module →
Transition Architecture TOGAF: An intermediate, deliverable state between baseline and target, showing the enterprise at a stable point along the way. Related module →
Value Stream Business Architecture: The end-to-end set of stages that create a result for a customer or stakeholder, e.g. 'Acquire Customer'. Related module →
Viewpoint / View Modeling: A viewpoint is a template for building a view for a set of concerns; a view is the resulting representation of the architecture (per ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010). Related module →
Zachman Framework Frameworks: An ontology for classifying architecture descriptions as a 6×6 grid of interrogatives (what, how, where, who, when, why) and perspectives. Related module →