Architecture Capability, Governance, and Stakeholder and View Management
Architecture capability
Architecture capability is the organization's ability to perform architecture work: skills, roles, processes, tools, governance, and funding. It is established in the Preliminary Phase and maintained through an Architecture Board, architecture principles, and a charter. Capability maturity matters because the ADM is only as effective as the capability that supports it.
Governance and stakeholders
Architecture Governance ensures architectures are created, approved, and used consistently. Mechanisms include the Architecture Board, architecture contracts, compliance reviews, and dispensation (waivers). Governance operates at multiple levels, such as corporate, IT, and architecture, and should be proportionate. Stakeholder management is continuous across the ADM: identify stakeholders, their concerns, influence, and views. A view is what a stakeholder sees; a viewpoint is the template or convention used to construct it. Views address concerns and are selected using the Architecture Content Framework.
Traps
Questions often imply governance means control by the architecture team alone, or that compliance review happens only at the end. In TOGAF, governance is continuous, with key gates at Phase A for vision approval, Phase E for solution direction, and Phase G for implementation compliance. Another trap equates view and viewpoint, or assumes stakeholders are identified only once.
Worked example
A regulator asks for proof that a new system meets principles. Use a compliance review against the architecture contract, record the outcome in the Governance Log, and, if a deviation is justified, issue a dispensation. Rule of thumb: identify stakeholders and concerns first, then choose viewpoints; govern continuously, not at the end.