Which of the following best describes the purpose of an Architecture Definition Document?
You are working as an Enterprise Architect at a large company. The company runs many retail stores, as well as an online marketplace. The online marketplace allows hundreds of brands to partner with the company.
The company has a mature Enterprise Architecture (EA) practice and uses the TOGAF standard for its architecture development method. The EA practice is involved in all aspects of the business, with oversight provided by an Architecture Board with representatives from different parts of the business. The EA program is sponsored by the Chief Information Officer (CIO).
Many of the stores remain open all day and night. Each store uses a standard method to track sales and inventory. This involves sending accurate, timely sales data to a central AI-based inventory management system that can predict demand, adjust stock levels, and automate reordering. The central inventory management system is housed at the company's central data center.
The company has bought a major rival. The Chief Executive Officer believes that a merger will enable growth through combined offerings and cost savings. The decision has been taken to fully integrate the two organizations, including merging retail operations and systems. This means that duplicated systems will be replaced with one standard retail management system. Also, the company will reduce the number of applications that are used. The CIO expects significant savings will be achieved by implementing these changes across the newly merged company.
One improvement that the rival has successfully implemented is the use of hand-held devices within stores, for both customers and staff. This has increased both customer and staff employee satisfaction due to the time savings this has brought. The CIO has given the go-ahead to roll out the devices in all stores but has stated that training on how to use the hand-held devices should be brief because there are a lot of employees, many of whom are part-time.
The Request for Architecture Work to oversee the merger has been approved. The project has been scoped and you have been assigned to work on it. Your role includes managing the architecture for the retail stores.
Refer to the scenario:
You have been asked to confirm the most relevant architecture principles for the transformation.
Scenario:
Please read this scenario prior to answering the question
ABC LLC is a vacation property management firm that is growing through acquisition. It manages over 200 resort properties across North America. Many of the resort properties use the same internal IT systems that they used before they were acquired. Until recently, the only requirement that has been placed in each property is that they use a standard financial reporting system to report their financials ID the headquarters on a weekly basis.
The CEO has stated his concerns about the inefficiencies of the current approach and identified the need to change. He has defined a new strategic vision that will enhance the LLC property business by standardizing its operations across the network to provide consolidated financial, human resources, logistics, sales and marketing, and yield management. He has also stated that he expects results by the end of the current fiscal year.
These changes will provide the company with improved utilization of its capacity and more efficient operations. The addition of a corporate-wide data warehouse will provide analytics that will enable the marketing group to improve its ability to target advertising into key markets to improve yields.
The LLC has a mature enterprise architecture (EA) practice and uses TOGAF 9 as the method and guiding framework. The CIO is the sponsor of the activity.
In planning this change, the Chief Architect engaged the services of a well-known consulting firm that specializes in business strategy. An initial study has been conducted to identify the strategic changes needed to implement the CEO's vision. This recently completed with approval of a strategic architecture encompassing the entire firm, including detailed requirements and recommendations.
Based on the recommendations from the initial engagement, the company has embraced an Architecture Vision to adopt an enterprise application that is tailored to the needs of the hospitality industry.
Refer to the scenario
Your role is that of Chief Architect. You have been asked to recommend the best approach to take in this architecture engagement to realize the CEO's vision.
Based on TOGAF 9, which of the following is the best answer?
Which of the following best describes the purpose of the Architecture Roadmap?