Magic Wand Corporation manufactures a range of equipment used by magician worldwide. The global
popularity of a series of children’s books describing the formative years of a budding wizard and his various
escapades at wizard school has driven unprecedented sales growth in the magical equipment market.
The current IT systems at Magic Wand are struggling to cope with the high volumes in this growth market. The
CIO wants to persuade the board of Magic Wand Corporation to make a greater investment in the IT systems
to cope with the new higher transaction volumes. On of the key components the CIOs wants to include when he
approaches the board is a description of the current problems and how they may be addressed from an
architectural point of view.
As the High Architect of Magic Wand Corporation, the CIO has delegated the task of creating a vision for the
future Architecture to you.
Which of the following answers best describes how TOGAF recommends delivering an Architecture Vision for
the CIO?
A.
Firstly, I ensure there is a Request for Architecture Work from the CIO. Then I ensure that there is
recognition for the architecture vision project by following any project management and programmed
management frameworks used within the organization. I would identify the key stakeholders and engage
with them to understand and document their concerns and high-level requirements. This would result in a
stakeholder map used to support other deliverables such as the Architecture Vision, a Communications
plan and a Statement of Architecture Work. I would then identify the business goals and strategic drivers of
the organization and define any enterprise or project specific constraints such as time and resources. I
would then define the business capabilities of the organization needed to fulfill those business goals and
drivers and their readiness for change. Once complete, I would define the scope, confirm the architecture
and business principles and develop the Architecture Vision. Following this, I would define the business
case for the architecture project, assess the business risks and produce a risk mitigation plan. I would then
define a plan of enterprise architecture work to meet the scope in the desired time line and the resources
required and secure the support of stakeholders.
B.
I would start by ensuring there is a Request for Architecture Work from the sponsor (the CIO). I would then
create a project to define and deliver the architecture vision and the necessary outputs. The outputs include
an approved Statement of Architecture Work, refined statements of Businesses Principles, Business Goals
and Business Drivers, Architecture Principles, a Capability Assessment, a Tailored Architecture Framework,
an Architecture vision, a Communications plan. The Statement of Architecture Work needs to be clear on
the scope of architectural work, the resources needed to complete the work and amount of time it would
take to complete the work assuming the scope of architectural work is agreed and that all the resources
required are available. The final step would be to agree the Statement of Architectural Work with
stakeholders confirming the scope, schedule and confirming the availability of the necessary resources.
C.
I would start by establishing the architecture project and follow the appropriate project management
method. I would identify stakeholders their concerns and business requirements then confirm and elaborate
the business goals, business drivers and constraints. I would then evaluate the business capabilities and
readiness for business transformation and define the scope. I would then develop the architecture vision,
define the target architecture value proposition, KPIs and identify and mitigate all risks associated with the
transformation effort. Finally, I would develop an Enterprise Architecture Plan and Statement of Work and
secure approval from the relevant stakeholders.
D.
I would approach this by defining and establishing the architecture team and governance. This would be
followed by agreeing and establishing the architecture principles. I would select and customize an
architecture framework changing any terminology and selecting the right phases and customizing the
structure of content and outputs from the chosen method. Finally I would select and implement and
architecture tools. The outputs from this work would include an Organization Model for Enterprise
Architecture, a Tailored Architecture Framework including method and content, the Architecture Principles,
an initial architecture repository, restatement or references to business principles, business goals and
business driver, a request for architecture work and the governance framework.