12.1 Stakeholders, Concerns, Views & Viewpoints

12.1 Stakeholders, Concerns, Views & Viewpoints

"Architecture Content" is worth 5 of 40 questions. The first learning outcome is to define and explain stakeholders, concerns, architecture views, architecture viewpoints, and their relationships. These concepts are adapted from the formal definitions in ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010, and they explain why architects produce different views for different people.

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Definitions

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How the Concepts Relate

The ability to create specific views of parts of a complex architecture is fundamental to communicating with, and allaying the concerns of, stakeholders. To gain their understanding and support, information must be presented in a form each stakeholder will relate to and understand.

The relationships follow a simple chain:

1. A system (for TOGAF, often the enterprise itself) has an architecture.
2. Stakeholders have an interest in the system.
3. Stakeholders have concerns about the system.
4. An architecture viewpoint frames particular concerns by setting the conventions for a kind of view.
5. An architecture view conforms to its viewpoint and addresses the concerns of the stakeholders.
6. Views are composed of models, built according to the model kinds the viewpoint references.

View Versus Viewpoint

A simple way to remember the difference:

• A view is what you see — specific to the architecture for which it is created.
• A viewpoint is where you are looking from — the vantage point or perspective that determines what you see. Viewpoints are generic and can be stored in libraries for re-use.

Every view has an associated viewpoint that describes it, at least implicitly. The Architecture Repository's Reference Library can hold a Viewpoint Library of re-usable viewpoint specifications.

The Blueprint Analogy

• The Viewpoint (Drafting Standard & Legend): The engineering standard defining symbols for circuit breakers, 220V wiring, and ground paths. It does not depict a specific building; it defines conventions for drafting any electrical layout.
• The View (The Blueprint): The actual CAD drawing for Floor 10 of a specific building, drawn conforming to the drafting standard.

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Stakeholder Management

Identifying stakeholders and their concerns is so important that the ADM Techniques document includes a Stakeholder Management technique, used in Phase A and throughout the ADM. Its steps are:

1. Identify Stakeholders — who is affected by, or can influence, the architecture work
2. Classify Stakeholder Positions — for example, their ability to disrupt the change, their current and required understanding, their current and required commitment, and their power and interest
3. Determine Stakeholder Management Approach — how each stakeholder group will be engaged
4. Tailor Engagement Deliverables — identify the catalogs, matrices, diagrams, and views that address each group's concerns

The Stakeholder Power Grid

TOGAF uses a power/interest grid to decide the engagement approach:

Key Players need the fullest engagement; Keep Satisfied stakeholders need enough information to stay content without being overwhelmed; Keep Informed stakeholders need regular updates; Minimal Effort stakeholders need only basic monitoring and communication. The results are recorded in a stakeholder map, which feeds the Communications Plan and the choice of viewpoints.

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Worked Example

The same architecture is represented four ways, each view conforming to a viewpoint chosen to address a specific set of concerns.

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Common Exam Pitfalls

• Swapping view and viewpoint. The view is the representation; the viewpoint is the specification of conventions for that kind of view.
• Thinking a viewpoint is specific to one project. Viewpoints are generic and re-usable; views are specific to an architecture.
• Mislabeling the power grid. TOGAF's quadrants are Key Players, Keep Satisfied, Keep Informed, and Minimal Effort.
• Forgetting that concerns determine acceptability. Concerns may determine whether the system is acceptable to its stakeholders.