Scenario
Please read this scenario prior to answering the question
Your role is that of Lead Enterprise Architect within the staff headquarters of a large hotel chain. The
chain manages over 500 hotels across North America and Canada, with another 230 hotels
internationally in the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia and New Zealand. Unlike other hotel chains,
which are often a mix of company-owned and franchised units, each hotel in the chain is an
independently owned and operated franchise. Many of the hotels use the same internal IT systems
that they used before they joined the franchise. Until recently, the only requirement that has been
placed on each hotel is that they use a standard financial reporting system to report their financial
results to the headquarters on a weekly basis.
The CEO of the chain has stated his concerns about the inefficiencies of the current approach and
identified the need to change. He has defined a new strategic vision that will enhance the business
by providing its franchisees new support services including worldwide reservations, global, national
and regional marketing as well as consolidated financials, logistics, and yield management. This
strategy is part of the long-term commitment to enhance the brand image and drive superior
revenue for the chain. He has also stated that he expects improved financial results by the end of the
current fiscal year.
These changes will provide the chain with improved utilization of its capacity and more efficient
operations. The addition of a corporate-wide data warehouse will provide analytics that will enable
the marketing group to improve its ability to target advertising into key national and regional
markets to improve yields.
The chain has a mature enterprise architecture practice based in its headquarters and uses TOGAF 9
as the method and guiding framework. The CIO is the sponsor of the activity.
In planning this change, the Chief Architect engaged the services of a well-known consulting firm
that specializes in business strategy. An initial study has been conducted to identify the strategic
changes needed to implement the CEO’s vision. This recently completed with approval of a strategic
architecture encompassing the entire chain, including detailed requirements and recommendations.
Based on the recommendations from the initial study, the chain has taken the decision to adopt a
packaged suite of integrated applications that is tailored to the needs of the hospitality industry.
Refer to the scenario
You have been asked by the Chief Architect to propose the best approach for architecture
development to realize the CEO’s vision.
Based on TOGAF, which of the following is the best answer?
A.
You propose that this engagement define the baseline Technology Architecture first in order to
assess the current infrastructure capacity and capability. Then the focus should be on transition
planning and architecture deployment. This will identify requirements to ensure that the projects
are sequenced in an optimal fashion so as to realize the vision.
B.
You propose that the target architecture is defined first, followed by transition planning. This is
because the vision is well understood and the strategic architecture agreed. The target first
approach will ensure that the current problems and inefficiencies of the baseline architecture are
not carried forward, and that the proposed solution addresses the requirements identified in the
initial study.
C.
You propose that the team focus on architecture definition, with a specific emphasis on
understanding the strategic change parameters of the business strategy. Once understood, the team
will be in the best position to identify the requirements, drivers, issues, and constraints for this
engagement. You would ensure that the target architecture addresses non-functional requirements
so as to ensure the target architecture is robust and secure.
D.
You propose that the team focus on defining the target architecture by going through the
architecture definition phases (B-D). This is because the initial study identified the need to change.
This will ensure that the change can be defined in a structured manner and address the
requirements needed to realize the vision.