Architecture Content Framework — Metamodel, Artifacts, Deliverables
The Architecture Content Framework defines WHAT architecture work products look like and how they fit together. It gives every deliverable, artifact and building block a defined place, and the TOGAF Enterprise Metamodel defines the formal entities and relationships that architecture content is built from.
The ADM tells you the PROCESS (how to develop architecture). The Architecture Content Framework tells you the OUTPUTS (what the work products are). Without it, every architect would invent their own document structure and nothing would be comparable or reusable.
- ▸📐 Provides a structured metamodel for architectural work products
- ▸🗂️ Classifies every work product as a Deliverable, an Artifact, or a Building Block
- ▸🔁 Makes work products consistent, comparable and reusable across engagements
- ▸🧩 Drives what goes into the Architecture Repository
- ▸⚠️ Content Framework = the OUTPUTS; the ADM = the PROCESS that produces them
Explore the three work-product types, the three kinds of artifact (catalog / matrix / diagram), and the TOGAF Enterprise Metamodel.
A work product that is contractually specified and formally reviewed, agreed, and signed off by stakeholders. Deliverables represent the output of projects. Once approved, they are archived in the Architecture Repository or transitioned into the Architecture Capability as a reference model, standard, or snapshot of the landscape.
- ▸Architecture Vision
- ▸Architecture Definition Document (ADD)
- ▸Architecture Requirements Specification
- ▸Architecture Roadmap
- ▸Architecture Contract
- ▸Implementation and Migration Plan
This three-way distinction is one of the most frequently tested definition items in OGEA-101.
- ▸📦 Deliverable — contractually specified, formally reviewed, and signed off by stakeholders; the output of a project. E.g. Architecture Vision, Architecture Definition Document, Architecture Requirements Specification, Architecture Roadmap, Architecture Contract.
- ▸📄 Artifact — a granular work product describing ONE aspect of the architecture from a specific viewpoint. Classified as Catalogs, Matrices, or Diagrams. Artifacts are normally bundled INSIDE a deliverable.
- ▸🧱 Building Block — a (potentially reusable) package of function or capability. ABBs (capability specification) and SBBs (candidate implementation). Deliverables and artifacts DESCRIBE building blocks; a building block is not itself a description.
- ▸🔗 Nesting: a Deliverable contains Artifacts; Artifacts describe Building Blocks.
- ▸⚠️ Trap: "an artifact is signed off by stakeholders" — FALSE. The DELIVERABLE is signed off.
Every TOGAF artifact falls into one of three structural kinds:
- ▸📋 Catalog — an enumerated LIST of building blocks of one type. Answers "what do we have?" E.g. Technology Standards Catalog, Application Portfolio Catalog, Organization/Actor Catalog.
- ▸🔲 Matrix — a GRID showing the relationship between two types of building block. Answers "how does X relate to Y?" E.g. Application/Function Matrix, Application/Data (CRUD) Matrix, Role/Application Matrix.
- ▸🖼️ Diagram — a graphical, stakeholder-friendly RENDERING of architecture content. Answers "what does it look like?" E.g. Business Footprint Diagram, Application Communication Diagram, Data Dissemination Diagram.
- ▸💡 Catalogs feed matrices; matrices feed diagrams — detail is progressively elaborated.
TOGAF 10 calls it the Enterprise Metamodel. It defines the types of entity that appear in the models describing the enterprise, and the relationships between them. The Foundation-level Core Enterprise Metamodel (Introduction & Core Concepts, Figure 3-8) is the starting point for an Organization-Specific Metamodel.
- ▸🧱 Entities such as Principle, Constraint, Assumption, Requirement, Gap, Work Package, Capability, Organization Unit, Actor, Function, Driver and Product — plus their relationships
- ▸✂️ Tailor it: when building the Organization-Specific Metamodel, architects may leave out entities and relationships that are not relevant
- ▸🏗️ Developing a high-quality metamodel is an important part of establishing the Enterprise Architecture Capability
- ▸📚 It also gives context for the catalogs, matrices and diagrams suggested in the ADM
- ▸🕰️ TOGAF 9.2 called this the "Content Metamodel" with a core plus six optional extensions (Governance, Services, Process Modeling, Data, Infrastructure Consolidation, Motivation). Those named extensions are TOGAF 9 material — the TOGAF 10 Fundamental Content does not use them.
Three closely-related structures that are easy to confuse:
- ▸📐 Architecture Content Framework — defines the STRUCTURE of work products (deliverable / artifact / building block + metamodel)
- ▸🗂️ Enterprise Continuum — a CLASSIFICATION scheme positioning artifacts from generic → organization-specific
- ▸🗄️ Architecture Repository — the actual STORAGE holding the work products (eight classes in TOGAF 10: Metamodel, Capability, Landscape, Standards Library, Reference Library, Governance Repository, Architecture Requirements Repository, Solutions Landscape)
- ▸💡 One sentence: the Content Framework says what a work product IS, the Continuum says how GENERIC it is, the Repository says where it is STORED.