- Architecture governance is the practice and orientation by which enterprise architectures and other architectures are managed and controlled at an enterprise-wide level. Architecture governance typically does not operate in isolation, but within a hierarchy of governance structures, which particularly in the larger enterprise, act as distinct domains with their own disciplines and processes. This includes areas like corporate governance, technology governance, IT governance, and architecture governance. Architecture governance is a kind of framework within a framework. It has four key elements. Governance processes, the information content associated with governance, the detailed flow of information that occurs when these processes are in action, and a repository in which all governance information can be stored. The key process is policy management and take on. This governs all changes to architecture. The compliance process checks to ensure service levels, standards and regulations are being observed. Dispensation allows for alternative approaches to the original contract, although this should be on a time-limited basis. Monitoring and reporting are standard features of governance. Business control ensures business policies are adhered to, and environment management, governs the architecture repository and all its content. So, what does successful governance look like? Well, success factors for governance include, best practices for the submission, adoption, reuse, reporting, and retirement of architecture policies, procedures, roles, skills, organizational structures and support services. Organizational responsibilities and structures to support the architecture governance processes and reporting requirements. The integration of tools and processes to facilitate the take up of the processes, both procedurally and culturally. Criteria for the control of the architecture governance processes, dispensations, compliance assessments, SLAs and overlays and that there are internal and external requirements for the effectiveness, efficiency, confidentiality, integrity, availability, compliance, and the reliability of all architecture governance related information, services and processes. All of this falls within the context of business, technology and regulatory drivers as well as the organizational structure. The organizational structure determines the governance environment. At the top of the environment, you can see that the organization is stewarded by the Chief Information Officer, CIO, and Chief Technology Officer, CTO. The development area outlines the main roles in architecture development, implementation and deployment. The development area contains the architecture board. We've referenced the architecture board throughout this course, so let's look at what they do. First, why are they needed? Well, specifically, the architecture board should, provide the basis for all decision making with regard to the architectures, provide consistency between sub architectures, establish targets for reusable building blocks or components, ensure flexibility of the enterprise architecture, to make sure it meets the changing business needs and makes use of new technologies, enforce compliance of the architecture across the organization, improve the maturity level of the architecture discipline in the organization and ensure discipline of architecture development is adopted and support the visible escalation capability for out of balance decisions. The architecture board oversee the implementation of enterprise architecture governance strategy, as well as represent all key stakeholders in the architecture. The board should be cross-organizational, to make sure that all areas of the enterprise are represented. They can comprise the global boards with broad organizational responsibility, and local boards containing domain experts and line responsibility. Each board will have its own responsibilities, decision making capabilities, remit and authority limits. Another key area that architecture governance covers is the establishment of architecture contracts. As with any contract, it's a formal agreement between two or more partners. In the case of the TOGAF framework, though, architecture contracts are used to ensure that, there is a system of continuous monitoring to check integrity, changes, decision making, and the audit of all architecture-related activities within the organization. Principles, standards and requirements of the existing or developing architectures are adhered to, identification of risks in all aspects of the development and implementation of the architecture, covering the internal development against accepted standards, policies, technologies and products, as well as the operational aspects of the architectures such that the organization can continue its business within a resilient environment, and a set of processes and practices exist that ensure accountability, responsibility, and discipline with regard to the development and usage of all architectural artifacts. There is a formal understanding of the governance organization responsible for the contract, their level of authority and scope of the architecture under the governance of this body. Architecture governance is a huge topic. So we're going to pick up the rest of architecture governance in the next video, where we'll cover compliance in more detail.