TOGAF® vs. BIAN

TOGAF vs. BIAN? The question makes little sense. TOGAF is a comprehensive architecture framework for enterprise architecture. BIAN is an industry architecture framework. BIAN provides both a reference architecture, and a replacement for the TOGAF Content Framework for high performing financial organizations.

BIAN specialised in one of the three challenges good architecture frameworks address - how to document an enterprise architecture in the Banking Industry.

How would they conflict?

Contact us to talk about enterprise architecture consulting

TOGAF vs BIAN - Content Framework

The TOGAF Standard is modular, scalable, and configurable. By design, the TOGAF framework is not prescriptive. The TOGAF framework provides the universal essential scaffolding for the three central problems facing enterprise architects:

  1. How to describe an enterprise architecture
  2. What is needed to have an enterprise architecture capability
  3. How to develop an enterprise architecture

The BIAN Service Landscape is a blueprint for the logical components of a bank’s IT environment. A logical blueprint for a bank's IT environment. Sounds like an industry specific reference architecture.

TOGAF vs.
Explore Custom Enterprise Architecture Training

TOGAF vs BIAN - Content Framework

The TOGAF Standard is modular, scalable, and configurable. By design, the TOGAF framework is not prescriptive. The TOGAF framework provides the universal essential scaffolding for the three central problems facing enterprise architects:

  1. How to describe an enterprise architecture
  2. What is needed to have an enterprise architecture capability
  3. How to develop an enterprise architecture

The BIAN Service Landscape is a blueprint for the logical components of a bank’s IT environment. A logical blueprint for a bank's IT environment. Sounds like an industry specific reference architecture.

TOFGAF vs BIAN aligning concepts

TOGAF's architecture continuum explains how to integrate the BIAN Service Landscape into your architecture.

BIAN provides an industry specific IT architecture. If you work in financial services and you are not using BIAN, you are choosing to slow down your delivery of useful enterprise architecture.

BIAN - Financial technology Architecture Framework
TOGAF Certification Training

TOGAF vs BIAN: Play to their Strengths

Both the TOGAF standard and BIAN are exhaustive. TOGAF addresses all three enterprise architecture challenges in a way that is industry agnostic. BIAN specializes in IT environment in the financial industry.

The joint Open Group / BIAN paper, Integrating the TOGAF Standard with the BIAN Service Landscape, brings these two frameworks together and shows banking industry architects the opportunity they have to reap the synergies of both frameworks and speed up their work.

The key constituents of the BIAN Service Landscape are:

  • Business Area: A Business Area groups together a broad set of business capabilities. They define them to be aspects of business activity that have similar supporting application and information-specific needs (e.g., “Operations & Execution”, “Reference Data”, “Sales & Service”).
  • Business Domain: Defines a coherent collection of capabilities within a Business Area. They associate Business Domains with skills and knowledge recognizable in the banking business (e.g., “Payments” as a Business Domain within the Business Area “Operations & Execution”).
  • BIAN Service Domain: The finest level of partitioning. Defining unique and discrete business capabilities. The BIAN Service Domains are the “elemental building blocks” of a service landscape (e.g., “Payments Execution” is a BIAN Service Domain within the “Payments” Business Domain).
  • Service Group: A set of Service Operations, is owned by a BIAN Service Domain. It is an interface to the BIAN Service Domain. We define it in terms of business semantics rather than in technical IT terms (e.g., “manage payment order”).
  • Service Operation: Represents a service defined at the level of business semantics, specifying the access to one or more capabilities of a BIAN Service Domain (e.g., “execute payment order” or “update payment order” are Service Operations of the Service Group “manage payment order”).
BIAN Banking Industry Architecture Reference Model
Download the Practitioner's Guide on Developing an Enterprise Architceture with the TOGAF ADM

BIAN

BIAN is the Banking Industry Architecture Network. The BIAN Service Landscape is a blueprint for the logical components of a bank’s IT environment. Leveraging this blueprint and the Service Domain Specifications will significantly speed up architecture initiatives—be it in the planning of change initiatives, in the procurement of components, or benchmarking of an existing landscape against best practices.

TOGAF vs BIAN & Navigate

We have not aligned BIAN to Conexiam Navigate.

When we integrate it, we will following the guidance in the Leader's Guide, replace rather than re-imagine. If you are in Financial Services, adopt the BIAN Service Landscape concepts and abandon generic concepts like the TOGAF Content Metamodel.

Integrating the TOGAF Standard with the BIAN Service Landscape is available from The Open Group publications library and BIAN.

Scroll to Top