Leading global standards for Enterprise Architecture and certification for enterprise IT and Business Architecture
The vision of The Open Group® is, “Boundaryless Information Flow™ achieved through global interoperability in a secure, reliable and timely manner”. The Open Group Architecture Forum mission supports this by:
- Validating, publishing, fostering, and maintaining best practices for Enterprise Architecture
- Developing, organizing, researching, and publishing thought leaders in Enterprise Architecture
- Providing broad and deep leadership to the Enterprise Architect community
- Initiating and managing programs and projects to support these activities
The Open Group Architecture Forum is best known as the home of the TOGAF® Standard and is the place where changes and extensions to the standard are developed by members, but its work is more diverse than this, and includes a wide range of architecture related topic such as:
EA Domain Level activities
- Business Architecture – Open Business Architecture Standard and supporting content
- Information Technology Architecture - Master Data Management and Business intelligence and Analytics
- Application Architecture – Application Value Streams and supporting content
- Data Integration Architecture – Data Integration landscape and best practice
- Zero Trust Security Architecture (in collaboration with The Open Group Security Forum)
- Data Integration
- Microservice Architectures
Industry Verticals
- Commercial Aviation Reference ArchitectureTM
- Government Reference Architecture
- Open Healthcare Enterprise Reference ArchitectureTM (developed and maintained by the Healthcare Forum)
All of its work is core to The Architects Toolkit - a portfolio of the most pertinent standards, reference architectures, frameworks, tools and bodies of knowledge used by Enterprise Architects in their work lives.
The TOGAF® Standard and TOGAF Series Guides
The TOGAF® framework is the de facto global standard for Enterprise Architecture. The Open Group Architecture Forum develops and maintains the TOGAF standard and publishes successive versions at regular intervals. For more details, please visit, the TOGAF Standard homepage.
There are a number of activities and workgroups that constantly develop and improve the TOGAF standard inline with the changing needs of industry and Enterprise Architrects, providing supporting documentation as well as maintain the ecosystem of existing documentation. Specific areas of focus, currently include;
| TOGAF & Digital | TOGAF & ArchiMate® Harmonization | TOGAF Certification Standing Committee |
| TOGAF Agile | TOGAF & Open Agile Architecture™ | TOGAF EA Value |
| TOGAF Series Guide Improvements | TOGAF & SOA | TOGAF UAF |
Agile Enterprise Architecture
The Open Group Architecture Forum includes an active working group for Agile Enterprise Architecture, meeting weekly. The group has produced a range of materials showing how to apply the TOGAF® Standard in an agile setting. These include:
Additionally, The Open Group has a working group that is specifically developing the Open Agile ArchitectureTM Standard.
Get Involved and Gain Influence in Defining Open Standards and Certifications
Being a member of The Open Group gives organizations early access to the latest information and developments regarding open standards and best practices, and enables them to participate in The Open Group’s highly influential Forums and Work Groups. We provide a collaborative, vendor-neutral environment where member representatives can:
- Network with a world-class community of peers, experts and industry leaders
- Have early access to information on industry developments
- Gain insight for future decisions from both major customers and suppliers of IT
- Influence outcomes that benefit their organizations
- Grow professionally, and enhance their credibility in the industry
- Receive education in best practices
Membership FAQs
The Open Group events are for business and technology professionals interested in achieving business objectives through technology standards. The Open Group organizes conferences, member meetings, industry verticals, webinars, and podcasts on a wide variety of topics.
The Architecture Forum hosts a quarterly members governance session where updates regarding workgroup activities, publications, and certifications are presented. The Forum also host a monthly session that is open for all members to discuss any topics related to the Forum.
Check our events calendar for upcoming events.
Below is an example of publications related to Enterprise Architecture. Full versions and more can be found in the Open Group Library.
