What is the IT4IT™ Reference Architecture? What is the impact on TOGAF & ITIL?

Recently, The Open Group released the IT4IT™ Reference Architecture, Version 2.0, a value chain based operating model for managing the business of IT. It creates a model of various functions that IT needs to perform to help business (organizations), thus identifying the key activities that contribute to business competitiveness and high value. The IT4IT™ Reference Architecture defines the IT management Framework focussing on the Lifecycle of Services while being independent of product, technology or vendor.

Do IT Well – Do IT Right.

How is the IT4IT™ Reference Architecture different from many other frameworks, including TOGAF, ITIL, DevOps, Microservices, Bimodal IT, Lean IT, SIAM, Design Thinking etc.? More specifically, what’s the impact of the IT4IT™ Reference Architecture on ITIL which may be relegated to a subset or ignored as irrelevant in IT organisations?

The foundation of the IT4IT™ Reference Architecture is that uses Lean Value Chain principles on IT Services and organizational structure to offer aligned high value. It is focused on the end-to-end flow of four high level IT value streams: Strategy to Portfolio, Requirement to Deploy, Request to Fulfil, Detect to Correct, across IT capabilities. The framework helps organizations to look at IT as a set of interconnected “Value Streams” and create a Service Backbone model, an integration model, a functional model and a data model for IT Organisation. This could help practitioners to implement a set of IT Management tools to support the value chain. As a framework, it inherently covers or borrows from all the popular industry frameworks/standards, e.g., ITIL, COBIT, CMMI, TOGAF etc., yet does not enforce practitioners to follow the traditional process thinking.

So, what can the IT4IT™ Reference Architecture do?

BY MURALI DHARAN/ THURSDAY, 12 NOVEMBER 2015/ PUBLISHED IN ENTERPRISE ARCHITECT, ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE, LATEST POSTS, TOGAF TEST