Terminology
System: A collection of components organized to accomplish specific functions.
Architecture: The fundamental organization of a system, including components, their relationships, and guiding principles.
Architecture Description: A collection of artifacts documenting an architecture.
Stakeholders: Individuals or groups with key roles or concerns about the system, such as users, developers, or managers.
Concerns: Crucial interests of stakeholders that determine the system's acceptability, covering aspects like performance, reliability, security, and evolvability.
View: Represents the system from the perspective of related concerns.
Architecture Models: Created by architects to capture the system's design. A view comprises selected parts of one or more models to address stakeholder concerns.
Viewpoint: Defines the perspective from which a view is taken, including how to construct and use the view, the information to include, modeling techniques, and rationale.
Viewpoints: Generic and reusable, while views are specific to the architecture.
Architecture Views: Representations of the overall architecture in terms meaningful to stakeholders, enabling communication and verification that the system addresses their concerns.
Concerns vs. Requirements: Concerns are areas of interest, while requirements are specific needs derived from concerns. Requirements should be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound).
Reference diagram:
Note: Copied from opengroup.org
Case Study : Hotel Management System
Stakeholders & Concerns
View and Viewpoint
The TOGAF architecture domains are themselves viewpoints. TOGAF Architecture Domains Applied to Hotel Management System
Business Architecture Domain
- Purpose: Addresses the needs of users, planners, and business management.
- Stakeholders: Guests, hotel staff, and management.
- Artifacts:
- Business Process Models: Diagrams showing the booking process from search to confirmation.
- Use Case Diagrams: Illustrating interactions between guests, hotel staff, and the system.
- Business Capability Maps: Highlighting the capabilities required to support the booking process.
Data Architecture Domain
- Purpose: Addresses the needs of database designers, database administrators, and system engineers.
- Stakeholders: Database designers, administrators, and IT team.
- Artifacts:
- Data Models: Entity-relationship diagrams representing guests, bookings, payments, and room details.
- Data Flow Diagrams: Illustrating how data moves between components like the booking engine, customer database, and payment gateway.
- Data Catalogs: Lists of data entities, attributes, and relationships.
Application Architecture Domain
- Purpose: Addresses the needs of system and software engineers.
- Stakeholders: System and software engineers, developers.
- Artifacts:
- Application Models: Diagrams showing the structure and interactions of software components.
- Application Interaction Matrices: Mapping interactions between different applications and services.
- Application Catalogs: Lists of applications, their functionalities, and interfaces.
Technology Architecture Domain
- Purpose: Addresses the needs of acquirers, operators, administrators, and managers.
- Stakeholders: IT operators, system administrators, and managers.
- Artifacts:
- Technology Models: Diagrams showing the hardware and network infrastructure.
- Technology Standards Catalogs: Lists of technology standards and guidelines.
- Technology Roadmaps: Plans for technology upgrades and integration.
Note :
The TOGAF® Standard is a leading Enterprise Architecture framework that enhances business efficiency through consistent standards and methods.