This Glossary is intended to assist amateur and professional IT consultants to better understand the concepts all related to Business Transformation. The definitions represent the meanings understood and shared by the majority of the Business Process, Enterprise Architecture and Digital Transformation community.
ADM: Architecture Development Method forms the core of TOGAF. It is a reliable, proven method for developing an IT architecture that meets the business needs of an organization, utilizing the other elements of TOGAF described in this document, and other architectural assets available to the organization.
Architecture: The fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution.
Architecture Change Management Phase Goal: Capacity to ensure that the architecture achieves its original target business value.
Architecture Content Framework: Informs on what content to produce at what phase of the ADM cycle and gives a model to structure those Architecture Deliverables.
Architecture Framework: A conceptual structure used to plan, develop, implement, govern, and sustain an architecture.
Architecture Model: A visual representation of a subject of interest.
Banking Industry Architecture Network: BIAN is an architectural framework for banking interoperability issues with the goal to define operability and semantic definitions for IT services in the banking industry.
Baseline Architecture: Is the “As-Is” or “current” architecture; includes architecture assets from all architecture domains.
Big Data: Field that treats ways to analyze, systematically extract information from, or otherwise deal with data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software.
Building block: A component of enterprise capability that can be combined with other building blocks to deliver architectures and solutions.
Business Actor: Is a business entity that can performe a behavior.
Business Architecture Phase Goal: Is to develop the Target Business Architecture.
Business Efficiency: Is an organization’s ability to achieve its goals by optimizing the use of its resources (time, money, people, technology). It is reflected in cost reduction, increased productivity, and improved quality of outcomes.
Business Function: Collection of business behavior based on a chosen set of criteria.
Business Process: Sequence of business behaviors that achieves a specific outcome.
BPM (Business Process Management): BPM is a management discipline that focuses on identifying, designing, modeling, executing, monitoring, and optimizing an organization’s business processes. Its goal is to improve operational efficiency, agility, and control.
Business Role: Is the responsibility for performing specific behavior, to which an actor can be assigned.
Business Services: Is an explicitly defined exposed business behavior.
Business Transformation: Refers to the execution of a plan aimed at converging and mobilizing Business Processes, people through Organizational Culture and Technology through Information Processes.
CCPM (Critical Chain Project Management): A methodology focused on identifying and managing project constraints. Unlike traditional methods, CCPM uses time buffers to protect project delivery from uncertainty, optimizing execution speed and resource availability.
Cloud Computing: On-demand availability of computer system resources, especially data storage and computing power, without direct active management by the user. The term is generally used to describe data centers available to many users over the Internet.
Deliverable: A work product that is contractually specified and formally reviewed, agreed, and signed off by the stakeholders.
Disruptive Technology: Refers to a new technology that surprisingly displaces an already established one.
Enterprise Architecture Framework: Describes a set of architectural views that allow us to display the flow of information or materials graphically and textually through an organization. We commonly call to this set of views as “an Architecture”.
Enterprise Continuum: View of the repository of all the architecture assets.
Enterprise: The highest level (typically) of description of an organization and typically covers all missions and functions. An enterprise will often span multiple organizations.
iBPM (Intelligent Business Process Management): iBPM is an evolution of traditional BPM that incorporates technologies such as artificial intelligence, real-time analytics, advanced automation (RPA), and machine learning to make processes smarter and more adaptive.
Implementation Governance Phase: Is about bringing together all the information for successful management of the various implementation projects.
Industry 4.0: Represents the fourth industrial revolution on the way to an Internet of Things, Data and Services.
Information Systems Architecture Phase Goal: Develop the Target Information Systems (Data and Application) Architecture.
Information Technology (IT): The lifecycle management of information and related technology used by an organization.
Innovation: Is the process of creating or significantly improving products, services, processes, or business models to generate value. It involves applying new or enhanced ideas that lead to useful, competitive, or transformative solutions.
Internet of Things (IoT): Is the extension of Internet connectivity into physical devices and everyday objects. Embedded with electronics, Internet connectivity, and other forms of hardware (such as sensors), these devices can communicate and interact with others over the Internet, and they can be remotely monitored and controlled.
ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library): ITIL is a set of best practices for managing IT services. It helps organizations align their IT services with business needs, promoting efficiency, continuous improvement, and high-quality service delivery.
ISO (International Organization for Standardization): ISO is an independent, non-governmental international organization that develops and publishes voluntary international standards across a wide range of industries and processes. ISO standards are commonly used to ensure quality, safety, efficiency, and regulatory compliance (e.g., ISO 9001 for quality management, ISO 27001 for information security).
Kanban: A visual agile method that manages tasks and processes in continuous flows. Uses boards to visualize work, limit work-in-progress (WIP), and optimize value delivery. Especially useful in operational or high-demand environments.
KPI (Key Performance Indicator): A quantitative metric that measures the performance of a project, process, or area. Helps evaluate progress toward specific objectives. Examples include schedule progress, budget deviation, and quality index.
Lean: A management approach focused on operational efficiency. Aims to eliminate waste, maximize customer value, and drive continuous process improvement. Originated from the Toyota Production System.
Modelling: A technique through construction of models which enables a subject to be represented in a form that enables reasoning, insight, and clarity concerning the essence of the subject matter.
OKR (Objectives and Key Results): A goal-setting framework that combines qualitative objectives with measurable outcomes. Helps align teams with strategy and measure real impact. Widely used in agile and tech-driven organizations.
Opportunities & Solutions Phase: Is about generating the initial complete version of the Architecture Roadmap, based upon the gap analysis and candidate Architecture Roadmap components from Phases B, C, and D.
Preliminary Phase: Is about defining “where, what, why, who, and how we do architecture” in the enterprise concerned.
PMBOK: A guide published by PMI that compiles the standards, processes, and best practices for managing projects. It is considered a global reference framework for predictive or traditional projects.
PMI: The most globally recognized organization in project management. It develops standards, certifications, and best practices such as the PMBOK. Founded in 1969, it is the reference for certifications like PMP (Project Management Professional).
PMO (Project Management Office): An organizational unit that defines and standardizes project management processes, provides methodological support, and centralizes portfolio oversight. It may operate as directive, supportive, or controlling depending on the maturity model.
Project Analyst: Is a professional who supports the Project Manager (PM) by monitoring, analyzing, and controlling project performance. Their main role is to ensure that the project progresses according to plan, providing accurate and timely data for decision-making.
RPA (Robotic Process Automation): Is a technology that enables the automation of repetitive, rule-based tasks through the use of software “robots” that interact with systems and applications just like a human would.
It is used to improve operational efficiency, reduce errors, and free up staff time for higher-value activities.
Scrum: An agile methodology that organizes work into short cycles called sprints. It focuses on incremental delivery, constant collaboration, and continuous improvement. Ideal for projects with high uncertainty or iterative development (such as software).
Scrum Master: The person responsible for ensuring the Scrum team correctly follows the agile methodology. Facilitates ceremonies, removes impediments, and protects the team from external disruptions. Acts as a process facilitator, not a boss.
Standard Operating Procedure (SOP): It is a writing that in a simple and structured way describes the sequence of actions, roles or people involved and technological tools that define a repetitive task within an organization. Also know as the Business Process Profile documentation.
TAFIM: Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management a reference model for enterprise architecture by and for the United States Department of Defense.
Target Architecture: It is the “To-Be” or “must be” architecture; it includes the redesigned, optimized and automated assets of the architecture of the process(es) that make it up.
Technology Architecture Phase: Is about developing the Target Data Architecture that enables the Business Architecture and the Architecture Vision, while addressing the Request for Architecture Work and stakeholder concerns.
TOGAF Enterprise Architecture Framework: The Open Group Architecture Framework based in a development tool for step-by-step architecture implementation. Focuses on Enterprise Continuum with Architecture Development Method (ADM).
Zachman Enterprise Architecture Framework: Is a comprehensive document that describes everything an organization does in exhaustive detail, based in a table with a set of rules in a matrix with 36 cells where the rows represent different “player perspectives” and the columns represent “technical perspectives”.
References:
- Some definitions where extracted from Wikipedia
- The TOGAF Standard, Version 9.2 Overview from https://www.opengroup.org/TOGAF
- Some definitions where extracted from MEGA International
