The Open Group OGBA-101 TOGAF Business Architecture Foundation Exam Exam Practice Test

Presenting different alternatives and trade-offs to stakeholders is a crucial technique in TOGAF for eliciting valuable feedback and refining the Target Architecture. This approach encourages stakeholders to actively participate in the architecture development process and express their preferences and concerns.

Here's why this approach is effective:

Reveals hidden agendas: By presenting different options with varying implications, stakeholders may reveal priorities or concerns that were not explicitly stated before. This helps architects uncover hidden agendas that could influence the architecture's success.

Uncovers underlying principles: Stakeholder reactions to different alternatives can reveal their underlying principles and values, providing insights into what they consider important in the architecture.

Identifies unspoken requirements: Through discussions and comparisons of alternatives, stakeholders may express needs or requirements that were not captured during initial requirements gathering.

Heat mapping is an analysis technique used to provide a visual representation of data, often to show performance against a set of criteria. In the context of business capabilities, heat maps can be used to represent various dimensions such as maturity levels, investment priorities, risk levels, etc., on the same set of business capabilities. This allows different stakeholders to quickly grasp where attention is needed or how capabilities align with strategic priorities.

In the provided diagram, item A refers to the Architecture Repository, which is a part of the TOGAF framework where all the architecture assets are stored. This includes the architectural models, patterns, architecture descriptions, and other artifacts relevant to the architecture. Item B is labeled as the Governing Board, which is likely referring to the Architecture Board or a similar governance structure responsible for oversight and decision-making regarding the enterprise architecture. Item C refers to Enterprise Capability, which encompasses the processes, tools, skills, and other capabilities that enable the architecture function within the enterprise.

The ADM Phases that match the purpose descriptions provided are: Phase C for the development of Information Systems Architectures to support the agreed Architecture Vision, Phase F for addressing the move from the Baseline to the Target Architectures by finalizing a detailed Implementation and Migration Plan, Phase G for providing architectural oversight of the implementation, and Phase D for describing the development of the Technology Architecture to support the agreed Architecture Vision.

The Architecture Requirements Repository within the TOGAF Architecture Repository holds the architecture requirements that have been agreed with the Architecture Board. Here’s a detailed explanation:

Architecture Requirements Repository:

This repository is a part of the larger Architecture Repository in TOGAF, which is used to store and manage all the artifacts related to the architecture.

Content of the Repository:

Agreed Requirements: It includes the architecture requirements that have been formally reviewed and agreed upon by the Architecture Board. These requirements are essential for guiding the development and implementation of the architecture.

Governance and Compliance: The repository ensures that these requirements are accessible and can be used to enforce governance and compliance throughout the architecture development process.

TOGAF ADM Phases:

Phase A: Architecture Vision: Initial requirements are identified and refined.

Phase B, C, D: Requirements are further detailed and agreed upon.

Architecture Governance: Throughout these phases, the agreed requirements are stored in the repository to ensure they guide the architecture work and are adhered to.

Purpose and Benefits:

Centralized Repository: Having a centralized repository for agreed requirements ensures that all stakeholders have access to the current and approved requirements, facilitating better coordination and compliance.

Traceability: It provides traceability of requirements throughout the architecture development lifecycle, ensuring that all decisions and designs are aligned with agreed requirements.

In summary, the Architecture Requirements Repository holds the architecture requirements that have been agreed with the Architecture Board, providing a centralized and authoritative source for guiding architecture development and ensuring compliance.

When creating value streams, it is recommended to start with customer-based value streams. Here’s a detailed explanation:

Value Streams:

Definition: Value streams represent the end-to-end activities that create value for customers or stakeholders. They provide a high-level view of how value is delivered within the organization.

Starting with Customer-Based Value Streams:

Customer Focus: Starting with customer-based value streams ensures that the architecture is aligned with the needs and expectations of the customers. This approach helps in identifying the most critical value-creating activities and aligning them with business goals.

Value Delivery: Customer-based value streams provide a clear understanding of how value is delivered from the customer’s perspective. This helps in designing processes and capabilities that enhance customer satisfaction and business performance.

TOGAF References:

Phase B: Business Architecture: In this phase, value streams are identified and modeled to ensure that the architecture supports the delivery of value to customers. Starting with customer-based value streams is a key activity in this phase.

Capability-Based Planning: TOGAF emphasizes the importance of aligning business capabilities with value streams to ensure that the architecture supports value creation and delivery.

Benefits:

Customer-Centric Design: Starting with customer-based value streams ensures that the architecture is designed with a focus on customer needs and value delivery.

Strategic Alignment: Aligning value streams with customer needs helps in ensuring that the architecture supports the strategic goals of the organization and enhances customer satisfaction.

In summary, when creating value streams, starting with customer-based value streams ensures a customer-centric design, aligning the architecture with the needs and expectations of the customers and supporting strategic goals.

In TOGAF ADM, Phase B is the Business Architecture phase where the architect should locate existing architecture descriptions to create an information map. This phase involves developing a detailed understanding of the business environment, including business processes, roles, and information flows. Existing architecture descriptions provide a baseline for identifying how information is currently managed and how it can be optimized to support business objectives.

In TOGAF, the dimensions for scoping an architecture are Breadth (coverage across the organization), Depth (level of detail), Time Period (horizon of the architecture), and Architecture Domains (the four architecture domains of Business, Data, Application, and Technology). These dimensions ensure comprehensive scoping and contextual alignment.

References: TOGAF Standard, Chapter on Scoping the Architecture.

According to TOGAF, defining the scope of an architecture involves considering these four key dimensions:

Breadth: This refers to how much of the enterprise is covered by the architecture. It defines the boundaries of the architecture, which could range from a single department to the entire organization, or even extending to external partners.

Depth: This dimension determines the level of detail included in the architecture. It can range from high-level conceptual models to detailed specifications of individual components.

Time Period: This specifies the timeframe for the architecture, including the intended lifespan of the architecture and any planned phases or iterations. It addresses questions like "What is the architecture for now?" and "What should the architecture look like in the future?"

Architecture Domains: This dimension defines which of the four architecture domains (Business, Data, Application, Technology) are included in the scope. The selection of domains depends on the specific needs and objectives of the architecture development effort.

Mapping is the process that turns a set of business capabilities into a structure that communicates the right amount of detail to different stakeholder groups. Here’s a detailed explanation:

Definition of Mapping:

Mapping: In the context of business architecture, mapping refers to the process of visually representing the relationships between business capabilities and other elements such as processes, value streams, and organizational units. This helps in communicating the structure and interactions within the business.

Purpose:

Communication: Mapping provides a clear and structured way to communicate the details of business capabilities to different stakeholder groups. It ensures that each group receives the appropriate level of detail needed for their role and decision-making.

Alignment: Helps in aligning business capabilities with strategic goals, processes, and organizational structure, ensuring that the architecture supports the overall business strategy.

TOGAF References:

Phase B: Business Architecture: During this phase, mapping is used to represent business capabilities and their relationships with other business elements. This helps in creating a coherent and comprehensive business architecture.

Capability Mapping: TOGAF emphasizes the use of capability mapping to understand and analyze how different capabilities support business processes and value streams.

Benefits:

Clarity and Understanding: Mapping provides a visual representation that enhances clarity and understanding of the business architecture. It helps stakeholders see the big picture and understand how different parts of the business fit together.

Stakeholder Engagement: By providing the right amount of detail to different stakeholders, mapping ensures effective engagement and collaboration across the organization.

In summary, mapping is the process that turns a set of business capabilities into a structure that communicates the right amount of detail to different stakeholder groups, facilitating clarity, understanding, and alignment.

The purpose of Enterprise Architecture, within the context of TOGAF, is to establish a clear and comprehensive blueprint for how an organization can effectively achieve its current and future objectives through a structured approach. Enterprise Architecture guides effective change by providing a long-term view of the organization's processes, systems, and technologies so that individual projects can build capabilities that fit into a cohesive whole. It helps to ensure that IT investments are aligned with business goals, supports the management of complex IT landscapes, and provides a systematic approach for the adoption of emerging technologies. Essentially, it acts as a strategic framework that facilitates the translation of business vision and strategy into effective enterprise change.

The Architecture Development Method (ADM) is the core process of TOGAF which outlines a method for developing and managing the lifecycle of enterprise architecture. Considering the phases of the ADM, the item labeled as '2' in the provided architecture development cycle diagram likely corresponds to the 'Architecture Change Management' phase, which is responsible for providing ongoing architectural oversight and guidance to ensure that the implementation remains aligned with the architecture defined in the previous phases. This includes managing changes to the architecture in a controlled manner as the implementation progresses and ensuring that the architecture continues to meet the business needs.

The TOGAF Architecture Repository is a key resource for managing architectural artifacts and information. It's structured to hold different types of architectural assets, and the Solutions Landscape plays a specific role within it.

Here's why option C is correct:

Solutions Landscape Definition: This component of the repository specifically houses the Solution Building Blocks (SBBs). SBBs are reusable components that represent a specific function or capability. They can be combined and configured to deliver solutions that meet business needs.

Supporting the Architecture Landscape: The Architecture Landscape provides a broad view of the organization's architecture at specific points in time. The Solutions Landscape supports this by showing how SBBs are deployed or planned to realize the architectures defined in the Architecture Landscape.

Visual Representation: The Solutions Landscape offers a visual representation of the relationships between SBBs and how they contribute to the overall architecture. This helps stakeholders understand the implementation of the architecture.

The provided representation of a business model appears to be a variant of the Business Model Canvas, which is a strategic management template for developing new or documenting existing business models. It is a visual chart with elements describing a firm's value proposition, infrastructure, customers, and finances. The model assists firms in aligning their activities by illustrating potential trade-offs. Since none of the options precisely match the Business Model Canvas and the Four Box Framework is conceptually closest to the Business Model Canvas, option B is the best available answer, albeit not a perfect match.

According to the TOGAF Standard, business scenarios are an important technique that may be used at various stages of the enterprise architecture, principally the Architecture Vision and the Business Architecture, but in other architecture domains as well, if required, to derive the characteristics of the architecture directly from the high-level requirements of the business1. The Architecture Vision is developed in Phase A, and the Business Architecture is developed in Phase B. The Preliminary Phase is also a stage where business scenarios can be used to help identify and understand business needs2.

Business scenarios are a tool used within TOGAF to help identify and understand the business requirements and to drive the creation of the enterprise's architecture. They are used in the Preliminary Phase to understand the organizational context, Phase A to develop the Architecture Vision, and Phase B to derive the Business Architecture based on the stakeholder's requirements and the business strategy.

A Business Capability Map is structured by categorizing and grouping capabilities into high-level clusters that align with business objectives. This approach aligns with TOGAF principles for clarity and simplification in business capability representation, enabling a coherent view of business abilities.

References: TOGAF Standard, Capability Mapping Techniques.

Business capability maps provide a structured view of what an organization does to achieve its objectives. To create a clear and understandable map, capabilities need to be organized effectively. Categorizing and grouping are the primary methods used for this purpose:  

Categorizing: This involves classifying capabilities into different types or categories based on their characteristics or purpose. Common categories include:

Core capabilities: Essential for the organization's core business.

Supporting capabilities: Enable or enhance core capabilities.  

Customer-facing capabilities: Directly interact with customers.  

Operational capabilities: Focus on internal operations.

Grouping: This involves grouping related capabilities together to create a hierarchical structure. This helps to visualize relationships between capabilities and understand how they contribute to broader business functions

Business Scenarios and Business Models are tools that architects can present to stakeholders to facilitate discussions that reveal underlying assumptions, agendas, principles, and requirements. They help in understanding the context, extracting and validating requirements, and identifying potential impacts on the target architecture. By discussing scenarios and models, stakeholders can express their vision and concerns, which may include unspoken or implicit needs that are crucial for the architecture's success.

Risk Management is the discipline that addresses the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated application of resources to minimize, control, and monitor the impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities. It is about striking a balance between the positive outcomes of opportunities and the negative outcomes of risks, ensuring that the enterprise can achieve its objectives while keeping potential threats under control.

One of the guidance for creating value streams is to start with customer-based value streams2. Customer-based value streams are those that describe how an enterprise creates and delivers value for its external customers2. Starting with customer-based value streams can help to ensure that the value streams are aligned with the customer needs and expectations, as well as the enterprise’s value proposition and strategic objectives2. Customer-based value streams can also provide a foundation for identifying and defining other types of value streams, such as internal or partner-based value streams.

A TOGAF business scenario is a technique that can be used to fully understand the requirements of information technology and align it with business needs1. It is not a business case, which is a document that provides justification for a proposed project or initiative6. It is not a method to develop a business model, which is a description of how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value for its stakeholders7. It is not a use-case, which is a description of how a system interacts with external actors to achieve a specific goal.

A TOGAF business scenario is a technique that helps to derive architecture requirements by describing a business process, application, or set of activities. It includes detailing the actors, roles, goals, business policies, business processes, and the environment in which the scenario takes place. Business scenarios are used within TOGAF to ensure that the architecture has a clear link to the business requirements.

TOGAF defines four core architecture domains: Business, Data, Application, and Technology. These domains collectively represent the key areas covered in enterprise architecture, where the Business Architecture defines business strategy and organizational goals; Data Architecture addresses data management and structure; Application Architecture focuses on system and software applications; and Technology Architecture outlines the IT infrastructure.

References: TOGAF Standard, Architecture Domains (Chapter 3).

TOGAF, as a comprehensive Enterprise Architecture framework, divides the architecture landscape into four interrelated domains:

Business Architecture: This domain focuses on the organization's strategic goals, business processes, and organizational structure. It defines how the business operates and creates value.

Data Architecture: This domain deals with the structure, organization, and management of data assets within the enterprise. It includes logical and physical data models, data storage, and data security.

Application Architecture: This domain describes the applications used to support the business, their interactions, and their alignment with business processes. It provides a blueprint for the application portfolio.

Technology Architecture: This domain covers the technology infrastructure that supports the applications and data. It includes hardware, software, networks, and IT services.

These four domains provide a holistic view of the enterprise and how its different components work together.

TOGAF's ADM (Architecture Development Method) is designed to be iterative at multiple levels: over the whole process, between phases, and within phases. This iterative approach allows for continuous refinement and improvement of the architecture, ensuring it remains aligned with changing business needs and technological advancements. Iteration helps in managing complexity and facilitates incremental development, enabling architects to revisit and adjust their work as new information and insights emerge.

 A key principle of value streams is that value is always defined from the perspective of the stakeholder2. A stakeholder is any person or group who has an interest in or influence on an enterprise or its activities5. A stakeholder can be internal or external to the enterprise. A stakeholder can also be a customer, end user, partner, supplier, regulator, employee, or any other role that interacts with or benefits from the enterprise’s products or services5. Value streams should reflect how stakeholders perceive and measure value in terms of outcomes, benefits, costs, risks, and satisfaction2.

The chart depicted is a Gantt chart, which typically represents the schedule for project activities. In the context of TOGAF's ADM, it is used to illustrate the sequence and interdependencies of tasks across different phases of architecture development. The ADM is an iterative cycle that includes various phases, from the preliminary phase, through architecture vision, business, information systems, and technology architectures, to opportunities and solutions, migration planning, implementation governance, and architecture change management. Each phase must be conducted in a sequence to ensure that the outputs of one phase feed into the next, thereby producing a coherent and structured architecture.

Business models play a significant role in shaping the principles that guide both architecture development and business operations within the TOGAF framework. Here's how:

Understanding value creation: Business models articulate how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. This understanding informs the development of architecture principles that support and enable value creation.

Aligning architecture with business goals: By analyzing the business model, architects can identify the key drivers and priorities of the business. This helps to formulate architecture principles that ensure the architecture aligns with the business goals and strategy.

Defining desired behaviors: Business models often implicitly or explicitly define desired behaviors and ways of working within an organization. These behaviors can be codified into business principles that guide decision-making and actions across the enterprise.

Promoting consistency: Using the business model as a foundation for principles ensures consistency between the architecture and the business strategy. This helps to avoid conflicts and ensures that the architecture supports the overall direction of the organization.

In TOGAF, a business capability represents a high-level abstraction of what a business does, independent of how, why, or where the capability is used. Here’s a detailed explanation:

Definition of Business Capability:

Business Capability: A business capability describes the capacity or ability of a business to act or achieve a specific outcome. It is an abstraction of the business functions, representing what the business does.

Key Characteristics:

What, Not How: A business capability focuses on what the business does, without delving into the specifics of how, why, or where it is implemented or utilized. This abstraction helps in maintaining a clear and consistent understanding across the organization.

Independence: Business capabilities are designed to be independent of the organizational structure, processes, or systems that support them. This ensures that they remain stable even as the organization evolves.

TOGAF References:

Phase B: Business Architecture: In this phase, business capabilities are identified and mapped to understand the core functions of the business. This helps in aligning the architecture with business strategy and objectives.

Capability-Based Planning: TOGAF emphasizes capability-based planning, where business capabilities are used as the foundation for planning and decision-making.

Importance:

Strategic Alignment: Business capabilities provide a stable and consistent view of what the business does, which is crucial for aligning the architecture with strategic goals.

Foundation for Analysis: By focusing on what the business does, capabilities serve as a foundation for various analyses, including gap analysis, impact analysis, and capability maturity assessments.

In summary, a business capability delineates what a business does without an explanation of how, why, or where the capability is used, providing a stable and consistent foundation for strategic planning and architecture development.

The diagram provided illustrates a Capability Map. Here's why:

Focus on "what" the organization does: The diagram depicts various functions and activities that the organization performs, such as "Program/Human Resource Matching," "Employee Supply and Demand Mgmt," "Benefits Management," etc. These represent the capabilities of the organization, or what it is able to do.

Hierarchical structure: The capabilities are organized hierarchically, with broader functions like "HR Mgmt." encompassing more specific capabilities like "Position Advertising" and "Skills Assessment." This shows how different capabilities relate to each other and contribute to higher-level functions.

No specific process flow: Unlike a process map or value stream map, this diagram doesn't show a sequence of steps or flow of activities. It focuses on the capabilities themselves, not how they are executed

The example value stream shown, labeled "Acquire Retail Product," represents a decomposition into a sequence of stages that collectively create value. Each stage, such as "Advertise Channels," "Display Products," "Enable Selection," "Process Payment," and "Deliver Product(s)," is a step in the overall process that contributes to the final outcome, which in this case is the acquisition of a retail product by the customer. Value streams are utilized in business architecture to model the flow of value through an organization from the initial customer demand to the final delivery of the product or service.

According to the TOGAF Business Architecture Guide, value streams play a key role in providing a structured framework that supports more effective analysis of business requirements, case management, and solution design. Value streams offer a high-level, customer-centric view of how value flows through the organization, which helps in aligning business requirements and ensuring solutions are well-targeted to meet those requirements.

Role of Value Streams in Business Requirements AnalysisValue streams help stakeholders understand the key stages and outcomes that deliver value to customers or stakeholders. This framework facilitates a clear alignment between business requirements and the value outcomes each requirement supports. By mapping requirements to specific value stream stages, architects can ensure that requirements are directly tied to business outcomes.

Supporting Case ManagementValue streams also provide a structured approach for managing various business cases. By identifying key stages in the value creation process, value streams help in evaluating and prioritizing cases based on their impact on value delivery. This structured approach enhances case management by focusing on value, efficiency, and alignment with organizational goals.

Enhancing Solution DesignSolution design is more effective when informed by a value stream view, as it allows architects to focus on delivering value at each stage of the process. By understanding the flow of value, architects and solution designers can ensure that technology, processes, and capabilities are aligned to support the most critical aspects of the value stream. This alignment optimizes solution design to meet specific business needs more effectively.

Why Option B is CorrectThe TOGAF Business Architecture Guide explicitly states that value streams provide a framework for business requirements analysis, case management, and solution design. This insight indicates that value streams are instrumental in ensuring that these elements are aligned with how value is delivered within the organization.

Why Other Options are Incorrect:

Option A (Identify value, duplication, and redundancy):While value streams can provide insights into operational efficiency, they are not primarily focused on identifying duplication and redundancy across the enterprise. Instead, this aspect is typically covered by detailed process mapping or capability assessments.

Option C (Highlighting value of individual work packages):Value streams do not emphasize individual work packages but rather focus on the overall flow of value. Work packages are more granular and usually defined during implementation and migration planning.

Option D (Ensuring investment prioritization):Investment prioritization is more closely associated with portfolio management rather than value stream mapping. Although value streams inform decision-making, they do not directly handle funding prioritization.

Conclusion:

The correct answer is B because value streams provide a framework that directly supports business requirements analysis, case management, and solution design, as outlined in the TOGAF Business Architecture Guide.

In TOGAF and other enterprise architecture practices, analyzing a value stream often involves understanding the various stages of the value stream and assessing how each stage contributes to business value. Heat mapping is a commonly used technique to visualize and analyze these stages, making it the most appropriate choice in this context.

Understanding Value Streams in TOGAFA value stream represents a high-level view of how value is delivered to customers or stakeholders. It encompasses all the activities necessary to achieve a specific outcome, often broken down into stages. In TOGAF’s Business Architecture, value stream mapping is a key activity for analyzing and understanding these value stages, enabling architects to identify areas for improvement.

Heat Mapping as an Analysis TechniqueHeat mapping by value stream stages is a visualization technique that highlights the effectiveness or performance of each stage in the value stream. By applying a heat map, architects can easily see which stages are performing well (often marked in “cool” colors) and which stages may need improvement (often marked in “hot” colors). This is particularly useful for identifying bottlenecks, redundancies, or inefficiencies within the value stream, which is essential for project analysis.

Why Other Options are Incorrect:

Option A (Converting value stream stages to entities and building a logical data model):Building a logical data model involves defining data entities and their relationships, which is more relevant for data architecture. It does not directly contribute to analyzing a value stream’s stages or performance within a project scope.

Option C (An organization chart showing business units and their value):An organization chart shows hierarchical relationships and roles within the enterprise, which does not specifically address value stream stages. While it may help understand which units are responsible for different parts of the value stream, it doesn’t provide insight into the performance or effectiveness of each stage.

Option D (Combining information mapping with a business process model):Information mapping with a business process model is more suited for detailed process analysis. It involves mapping information flows within processes but doesn’t directly address analyzing value stream stages. Value streams are typically at a higher level than detailed business processes, focusing more on outcomes than specific activities.

Conclusion: Heat mapping by value stream stages (Option B) is the most effective tool for analyzing a new value stream within the project scope, as it provides a visual assessment of each stage’s performance and identifies areas for improvement.

References:

TOGAF® Standard, Version 9.2, Value Stream Mapping Techniques

A business model describes how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value for its stakeholders3. A business architecture breaks a business model down into the core functional elements that describe how the business works, such as the value proposition, the customer segments, the channels, the revenue streams, the cost structure, the key resources, the key activities, and the key partnerships3.

The relationship between business models and business architecture is that while business models provide a high-level description of business elements such as customers, markets, and the economic rationale of the business, the business architecture takes this model and breaks it down into more detailed descriptions. It identifies the core functional components and their relationships, which describe how the business operates, the roles involved, the information flowing through the business, and the technology supporting business activities.

The relationship between business models and business architecture in TOGAF can be described as follows:

Business Models:

Definition: Business models describe how an organization creates, delivers, and captures value. They provide a high-level overview of the business, including elements such as value propositions, customer segments, channels, and revenue streams.

Purpose: Business models are used to understand and analyze the core elements of the business and how they interact to create value.

Business Architecture:

Definition: Business architecture provides a detailed view of the business, including its structure, capabilities, processes, and information. It articulates how the business operates and supports the business model.

Purpose: Business architecture translates the high-level view of the business model into detailed architectural views and artifacts. It ensures that the architecture aligns with the business strategy and supports the execution of the business model.

Relationship:

Articulation of Perspectives: Business architecture articulates the different perspectives and impacts of the business model by providing detailed views of the business components that support the model. This includes defining the necessary capabilities, processes, and organizational structures.

Alignment and Execution: Business architecture ensures that the architecture aligns with the business model and supports its execution. It translates the strategic intent of the business model into actionable and implementable architectural components.

TOGAF References:

Phase B: Business Architecture: This phase involves developing a detailed business architecture that aligns with and supports the business model. It includes identifying and defining business capabilities, processes, and organizational structures.

Strategic Planning: TOGAF emphasizes the importance of aligning business architecture with business strategy and models to ensure that the architecture supports the overall business goals.

Benefits:

Comprehensive Understanding: By articulating the different perspectives and impacts of the business model, business architecture provides a comprehensive understanding of how the business operates and delivers value.

Strategic Alignment: Ensures that the architecture is aligned with the business strategy and supports the execution of the business model, leading to better business outcomes.

In summary, business architecture articulates the different perspectives and impacts of the business model by providing detailed views of the business components that support the model, ensuring alignment and effective execution of the business strategy.

In TOGAF’s Architecture Development Method (ADM), the information map is linked to other business blueprints during Phase B: Business Architecture. Phase B is focused on developing the Business Architecture, which involves creating and aligning various business architecture artifacts, such as capability maps, value streams, organizational maps, and information maps.

The information map provides an outline of the critical information needed to support the business capabilities and processes. By linking the information map with other business blueprints (like the process and capability maps), architects can ensure alignment and coherence across business architecture components. This helps in creating a clear, unified view of how information flows and supports business operations and value creation.

Option B (Phase E) is incorrect because Phase E (Opportunities and Solutions) is primarily focused on identifying potential solutions and prioritizing initiatives for implementation.

Option C (Phase A) is incorrect as Phase A (Architecture Vision) is focused on defining the scope and vision of the overall architecture effort and gaining stakeholder agreement.

Option D (Preliminary Phase) is incorrect as it focuses on establishing the architecture framework and principles rather than creating detailed business blueprints.

Therefore, Phase B: Business Architecture is the correct answer, as it is the stage where the information map is integrated with other business architecture artifacts to create a cohesive business architecture.