Examice

Scenario -

Your role is that of the Lead Architect working for a government agency responsible for immigration, customs, and border control. The agency was formed by consolidating several smaller government agencies. The agency has established an Enterprise Architecture practice based on TOGAF 9. The CIO is the executive sponsor and has appointed an EA steering team to oversee the practice.

There has been a considerable increase in security requirements and immigration service requests in recent years, which have expanded the scope and size of the operations of the agency. As a result, the existing Information Technology architecture no longer meets the required service levels. A significant Enterprise

Architecture (EA) initiative is in progress with the goal to improve customer responsiveness and satisfaction, and improve the overall operational efficiency of the agency.

The current EA staff members were internal appointments based on a request from the EA steering team to supply a number of suitable individuals for the EA effort. Collectively, they possess a broad range of IT and business analysis skills. However, the CIO has expressed concern about the diverse range of experience within the team. There is concern that the EA staff may be lacking in some of the critical skills that are required to properly conduct EA activities. It had been assumed that any EA-related skill gaps would be overcome by on-the-job mentoring from the senior members of the EA staff. Each architect was expected to attend a TOGAF training course and participate in other skill development activities.

A recent review of the EA program revealed that many EA staff members, despite attending multi-day training courses, were not proficient in analyzing or creating the models and artifacts required for their assigned architecture projects. Stakeholders have observed errors and inconsistencies in artifacts and deliverables being submitted for review.

The CIO has asked you to recommend a professional development plan for the EA staff in order to address the findings raised in the recent review.

Based on TOGAF, which of the following is the best answer?

You recommend that a comprehensive evaluation of key team leader skills be made using the TOGAF Architecture Skills Framework. Based on the evaluations, you will recommend the necessary staff changes. This will ensure that the team leaders have the necessary skills and experience for the architecture tasks within the agency. The role and skill categories defined in the TOGAF Architecture Skills Framework should then be shared with the department leaders so that in the future, they can make more informed choices when providing internal candidates for the EA team.

You recommend that an architecture maturity assessment should be conducted. This will identify the practices on which the agency should focus to see the greatest improvement and ensure that the basic enterprise architecture process is documented. As part of the assessment, all of the team leaders should be interviewed and their qualifications assessed. In order to rectify areas of low proficiency, they are expected to attend additional EA training courses. When the team leaders have achieved the desired levels of proficiency, they should apply a similar process for their staff members.

You recommend that you work with the EA steering team to adapt the TOGAF Architecture Skills Framework for use within the architecture practice at the agency. The categories of architecture roles, the required skills for each role and the desired level of proficiency for each role and skill will be defined by this framework. Each team member, or prospective team member, can then be evaluated for suitability against these roles and skills. Staffing and training adjustments can then be made as necessary to close gaps that are discovered.

You recommend that to address the issues identified in the review, the experienced team leaders should mentor the junior team members. At the same time additional training should be provided. Since it is now known that some models are improperly defined and may have caused cascading errors in other parts of the architecture, you recommend an iteration of the Migration Planning phase occur, so as to develop a coordinated transition to a new baseline using the last known good architecture. Once the artifacts are consistent and correct, these can be applied to this new baseline.