Preliminary Phase and Architecture Governance
What the Preliminary Phase is really deciding
The Preliminary Phase answers "how will we do architecture here?" before any project architecture begins. You prepare the enterprise: scope the organizations impacted, confirm governance and support frameworks, establish the Architecture Capability (team, roles, tools), define Architecture Principles, tailor the ADM, and populate the Architecture Repository.
Outputs to memorise: the Organizational Model for Enterprise Architecture, the Tailored Architecture Framework, Architecture Principles (business principles, goals and drivers are inputs), a populated Architecture Repository, and a Request for Architecture Work approved by the sponsor. The Architecture Board and the Architecture Governance framework live here, and Architecture Contracts are defined as governance instruments.
Traps
- Preliminary is not "Phase 0 of a project". It defines the capability; it produces no Business or Technology Architecture.
- Principles are not opinions: each has Name, Statement, Rationale and Implications, and must be Understandable, Robust, Complete, Consistent and Stable.
- Governance levels nest as Corporate, then Technology, then IT, then Architecture. Distractors swap this order.
- Compliance ratings run Irrelevant, Consistent, Compliant, Conformant, Fully Conformant.
Rule of thumb
If a question asks who decides or endorses, the answer is the Architecture Board or the sponsor, never the architecture team alone. If it asks what is missing before Phase A can start, look for Architecture Principles or a signed Request for Architecture Work.