TOGAF 10's 21 Enterprise Architecture Principles Explained

TOGAF 10, the latest version of The Open Group Architecture Framework, recommends 21 standard principles for enterprise architecture. These principles guide information management decisions across the entire enterprise and serve as a foundational reference for architects.

Principle 1: Primacy of Principles – These information management principles apply to all organizations within the enterprise.

Principle 2: Maximize Enterprise Benefit – Information management decisions are made to provide maximum benefit to the enterprise as a whole.

Principle 3: Information Management Is Everyone's Responsibility – All organizations in the enterprise participate in information management decisions required to achieve business objectives.

Principle 4: Business Continuity – Enterprise operations are maintained despite system interruptions.

Principle 5: Common Applications – Development of enterprise-wide applications is preferred over similar or duplicative applications serving only a specific organization.

Principle 6: Service Orientation – Architecture is designed around services that reflect real-world business activities composing enterprise (or cross-enterprise) business processes.

Principle 7: Compliance with Law – Enterprise information management processes comply with all relevant laws, policies, and regulations.

Principle 8: IT Accountability – The IT organization is responsible for owning and implementing IT processes and infrastructure that meet user-defined functional, service-level, cost, and delivery requirements.

Principle 9: Intellectual Property Protection – The enterprise's intellectual property must be protected, and this protection must be reflected in IT architecture, implementation, and governance processes.

Principle 10: Data Is an Asset – Data is a valuable asset to the enterprise and must be managed accordingly.

Principle 11: Data Sharing – Users have access to data necessary for their duties; therefore, data is shared across enterprise functions and organizations.

Principle 12: Data Accessibility – Users can access data to perform their functions.

Principle 13: Data Trusteeship – Every data element has a trustee responsible for data quality.

Principle 14: Common Vocabulary and Data Definitions – Data is defined consistently throughout the enterprise, and definitions are understandable and accessible to all users.

Principle 15: Data Security – Data is protected from unauthorized use and disclosure, including pre-decisional, sensitive, source-sensitive, and proprietary information.

Principle 16: Technology Independence – Applications are independent of specific technology choices, enabling them to run on a variety of technology platforms.

Principle 17: Ease of Use – Applications are easy to use; underlying technology is transparent to users so they can focus on their tasks.

Principle 18: Requirements-Based Change – Applications and technology are changed only in response to business needs.

Principle 19: Responsive Change Management – Changes to the enterprise information environment are implemented in a timely manner.

Principle 20: Control Technical Diversity – Technical diversity is controlled to minimize the non-trivial cost of maintaining expertise in and connectivity among multiple processing environments.

Principle 21: Interoperability – Software and hardware conform to defined standards to promote interoperability of data, applications, and technology.

Reference: TOGAF 10 Series Guide .