Enterprise Architecture2 The Open Group Architecture Framework or TOGAF was developed in 1995 to help IT and business departments align by reducing errors, keeping timelines and budgets, and helping to produce quality results (White, 2018). It is designed to be used in the four domains of enterprise architecture: business, applications, data, and technical (Lea nix, n.d.). In enterprise architecture, there are a lot of documents that are very different from one another, but all address stakeholder concerns and requirements. TOGAF puts these documents into three categories or components: building blocks, artifacts, and deliverables (Z, 2021). A building block represents replaceable and often reusable basic objects that make up the whole project. A building block can be made up of and interact with other building blocks. They are the parallel functions that meet the needs of the organization. There are four categories of building blocks: Environmental, Direction, Action, and Performance (EDAP) (Whelan & Meaden, 2016). There are also two subcategories which are Architectural Building Blocks (ABBs) and Solution Building Blocks (SBBs) (Desfray & Raymond, 2014). Environmental building blocks are the influences made on the organization. These influences can be political, environmental, technological, regulatory, or cultural. Directional building blocks are the direction that the organization wants to go and the goals it is trying to achieve. Things such as vision, goals, and objectives fall into this category. An action building block looks at both the environmental and direction building blocks. It then determines the steps or processes that need to take place to fulfill the requirements or needs defined previously. Misson statements, strategies, and scopes are part of the action building blocks. Finally, performance building blocks are used to measure the effectiveness of the enterprise architecture.
