By The Open Group
1 Title/Current Version
IT4IT™ Reference Architecture Version 2.0, an Open Group Standard
2 The Basics
The Open Group IT4IT Reference Architecture standard comprises a reference architecture and a value chain-based operating model for managing the business of IT.
The IT Value Chain
The IT Value Chain has four value streams supported by a reference architecture to drive efficiency and agility. The four value streams are:
- Strategy to Portfolio
- Request to Fulfill
- Requirement to Deploy
- Detect to Correct
Each IT Value Stream is centered on a key aspect of the service model, the essential data objects (information model), and functional components (functional model) that support it. Together, the four value streams play a vital role in helping IT control the service model as it advances through its lifecycle.
The IT4IT Reference Architecture
- Provides prescriptive guidance on the specification of and interaction with a consistent service model backbone (common data model/context)
- Supports real-world use-cases driven by the Digital Economy (e.g., Cloud-sourcing, Agile, DevOps, and service brokering)
- Embraces and complements existing process frameworks and methodologies (e.g., ITIL®, CoBIT®, SAFe, and TOGAF®) by taking a data-focused implementation model perspective, essentially specifying an information model across the entire value chain
3 Summary
The IT4IT Reference Architecture standard consists of the value chain and a three-layer reference architecture. Level 1 is shown below.
The IT4IT Reference Architecture provides prescriptive, holistic guidance for the implementation of IT management capabilities for today’s digital enterprise. It is positioned as a peer to comparable reference architectures such as NRF/ARTS, TMF Framework (aka eTOM), ACORD, BIAN, and other such guidance.
Together, the four value streams play a vital role in helping IT control the service model as it advances through its lifecycle:
The Strategy to Portfolio (S2P) Value Stream:
- Provides the strategy to balance and broker your portfolio
- Provides a unified viewpoint across PMO, enterprise architecture, and service portfolio
- Improves data quality for decision-making
- Provides KPIs and roadmaps to improve business communication
The Requirement to Deploy (R2D) Value Stream:
- Provides a framework for creating, modifying, or sourcing a service
- Supports agile and traditional development methodologies
- Enables visibility of the quality, utility, schedule, and cost of the services you deliver
- Defines continuous integration and deployment control points
The Request to Fulfill (R2F) Value Stream:
- Helps your IT organization transition to a service broker model
- Presents a single catalog with items from multiple supplier catalogs
- Efficiently manages subscriptions and total cost of service
- Manages and measures fulfillments across multiple suppliers
The Detect to Correct (D2C) Value Stream:
- Brings together IT service operations to enhance results and efficiency
- Enables end-to-end visibility using a shared configuration model
- Identifies issues before they affect users
- Reduces the mean time to repair
4 Target Audience
The target audience for the standard consists of:
- IT executives
- IT process analysts
- Architects tasked with “business of IT” questions
- Development and operations managers
- Consultants and trainers active in the IT industry
5 Scope
The Open Group IT4IT standard is focused on defining, sourcing, consuming, and managing IT services by looking holistically at the entire IT Value Chain. While existing frameworks and standards have placed their main emphasis on process, this standard is process-agnostic, focused instead on the data needed to manage a service through its lifecycle. It then describes the functional components (software) that are required to produce and consume the data. Once integrated together, a system of record fabric for IT management is created that ensures full visibility and traceability of the service from cradle to grave.
IT4IT is neutral with respect to development and delivery models. It is intended to support Agile as well as waterfall approaches, and lean Kanban process approaches as well as fully elaborated IT service management process models.
The IT4IT Reference Architecture relates to TOGAF®, ArchiMate®, and ITIL® as shown below:
6 Relevant Website
For further details on the IT4IT Reference Architecture standard, visit www.opengroup.org/IT4IT.
