Using Enterprise Architecture Framework (TOGAF) in an Agile Way

Ensuring your organization follows best practices, frameworks, tools & deliverables recommended by an Enterprise Architecture framework like TOGAF is a daunting task. Often, we start with high-energy and commitment but the journey to get it in practice in your organization is not an easy path.

A pragmatic & progressive way towards building an enterprise architecture capability is similar to Agile methodology where we build the product incrementally. Considering a similar mindset, we can incrementally build enterprise capability and every cycle of TOGAF ADM helps towards achieving the same.

Key idea is to identify the top 3 deliverables or artifacts relevant to your organization and also use TOGAF framework in conjunction with the Agile framework in practice. 

Here is an example of going through various phases of TOGAF and brainstorm on identifying Top 3 Deliverables as an output of the first cycle across various phases.  

In conclusion, starting small and build on top of it is key to the success of getting enterprise architecture practice gets established in your organization.

Reference:  
https://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf9-doc/arch/

Emerging role of PaaS (Platform as a service) in building cloud-native applications

Challenges & opportunities for cloud-native applications

Current technology landscape for cloud-native apps is evolving and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions are constantly changing to meet the demands such architecture. As customers need flexibility and openness in terms of choosing PaaS solution (without any vendor or technology lock-in), a key need is to provide a neutral view in terms of:

• Which PaaS solution is the right fit for my enterprise (considering unique opportunities and challenges in each enterprise)?
• How does it help in realizing the vision of migrating toward cloud-native apps (with microservices as an architectural style of business services)?

The overarching problem of choosing the right technology solution & partner towards enterprise-level cloud-native apps creates an opportunity for all of us to innovate, build and implement the right-fit solution in a progressive manner.

Capabilities of Platform as a service for cloud-native applications

A reference architecture outlined below denotes the key set of capabilities required for building cloud-native apps and helps in choosing the right platform offering these capabilities:

Key platform as a service (PaaS) solution options

CloudFoundry & Kubernetes are great initiatives towards standardization of PaaS solutions but the consensus towards a standardized approach towards PaaS is still in an early stage.

Considering current market landscape with both serverless and other emerging trends, current PaaS solutions can be visualized as below (there are many variations coming out of options shown here by different vendors):

Conclusion

Cloud-native apps development is an evolving field and considering the novelty of the solution, industry players and standards bodies (such as IEEE) are still firming up standards and best practices. As there is no silver bullet in choosing any solution and enterprise context, governance and required capabilities drive the recommended platform as a service (PaaS) solution in supporting cloud-native applications. 

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