Sabsa-Togaf Integration
Sabsa-Togaf Integration
Sabsa-Togaf Integration
Integration
How SABSA and TOGAF complement each
other to create better architectures
A White Paper by:
The Open Group TOGAF-SABSA Integration Working Group,
comprising leading representatives from the SABSA Institute and
members of The Open Group Architecture and Security Forums
October 2011
W117
Published by The Open Group and the SABSA Institute, October 2011.
Any comments relating to the material contained in this document may be submitted to:
The Open Group, 44 Montgomery St. #960, San Francisco, CA 94104
([email protected])
or to:
The SABSA Institute, 17 Ensign House, Admirals Way, Canary Wharf, London E14 9XQ, UK
([email protected])
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Table of Contents
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Executive Summary
Introduction
17
21
29
Appendix A: Glossary
48
51
References
56
57
57
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Where appropriate, this White Paper includes excerpts from the SABSA Blue Book and SABSA White Paper
update, with the full approval and permission of the SABSA Institute.
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Introduction
Purpose
Enterprise architecture (including security architecture) is all about aligning business systems and supporting
information systems to realize business goals in an effective and efficient manner (systems being the
combination of processes, people, and technology). One of the important quality aspects of an enterprise
architecture is risk regarding information security and the way this can be managed. For too long, information
security has been considered a separate discipline, isolated from the enterprise architecture. This White Paper
documents an approach to enhance the TOGAF enterprise architecture methodology with the SABSA
security architecture approach and thus create one holistic architecture methodology.
The vision is to support enterprise architects who need to take operational risk management into account, by
providing guidance describing how TOGAF and SABSA can be combined such that the SABSA business
risk and opportunity-driven security architecture approach can be seamlessly integrated into the TOGAF
business strategy-driven approach to develop a richer, more complete enterprise architecture.
There are two main focal points in this White Paper. The first is to describe how SABSA can best be used in
TOGAF-based architecture engagements. Unlike regarding security as a separate product, this White Paper
gives a practical approach that makes the SABSA security requirements and services available as common
TOGAF artifacts.
The second focal point is to show how the requirements management processes in TOGAF can be fulfilled in
their widest generic sense (i.e., not only with regard to security architecture) by application of the SABSA
concept of Business Attribute Profiling to the entire ADM process.
Furthermore, TOGAF also offers significant benefits for a pure SABSA-based architecture project and these
are described in Appendix B: TOGAF Benefits for SABSA Practitioners as guidance for SABSA
practitioners.
Project background
The TOGAF-SABSA integration project started in May 2010 as a joint initiative of both the Architecture
Forum and the Security Forum of The Open Group, and the SABSA Institute. With the publication of this
White Paper the project ends.
Next steps
This White Paper intends to communicate current thinking and to elicit comments from the architecture and
security communities. The project results and received comments are submitted via this White Paper to The
Open Group Architecture Forum for their use to create the new security and risk management content for a
scheduled revision of the TOGAF standard and, in particular, the content currently in Chapter 21 regarding
security architecture.
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What is TOGAF?
TOGAF [1] is an architecture framework which provides the methods and tools for assisting in the
acceptance, production, use, and maintenance of enterprise architecture. It is based on an iterative process
model supported by best practices and a re-usable set of existing architecture assets.
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initiatives. It is an open standard, comprising a number of frameworks, models, methods, and processes, free
for use by all, with no licensing required for end-user organizations that make use of the standard in
developing and implementing architectures and solutions.
SABSA is business outcome-based. The fundamental idea behind SABSA is that the security architecture is
there to facilitate the business. This is in line with TOGAF concepts.
At the heart of the SABSA methodology is the SABSA Model, a top-down approach that drives the SABSA
Development Process. This process analyzes the business requirements at the outset, and creates a chain of
traceability through the SABSA Lifecycle phases of Strategy & Planning, Design, Implement, and ongoing
Manage & Measure to ensure that the business mandate is preserved.
SABSA contains framework tools created from practical experience, including the SABSA Matrix and the
SABSA Business Attribute Profile that further support the whole methodology.
SABSA is well described in the Blue Book [2]. In addition, new SABSA thinking is published at
www.sabsa.org.
The SABSA artifacts described in this paper mainly refer to the Blue Book; however, it is recommended that
to reflect current thinking which has moved on considerably since the Blue Book was published, users of this
White Paper should refer to the most recently published SABSA materials available at www.sabsa.org [3].
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The TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM) provides a tested and repeatable process for
developing architectures.
The ADM includes activities related to establishing an architecture framework, developing architecture
content, transitioning, and governing the realization of architectures. All of these activities are carried out
within an iterative cycle of continuous architecture definition and realization that allows organizations to
transform their enterprises in a controlled manner in response to often changing business goals and
opportunities. See Chapter 5 of TOGAF 9.
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The content metamodel provides a definition of all the types of building blocks that may exist within an
architecture, showing how these building blocks can be described and related to one another.
For example, an architect could identify applications, the data entities processed, and the technologies that
implement those applications. These applications will in turn support particular groups of business user or
actor, and will be used to support business services. See Chapter 34 of TOGAF 9.
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SABSA Model
The SABSA Model comprises six layers. It is based on the well-known Zachman framework1 for developing
a model for enterprise architecture, although it has been adapted somewhat to a security view of the world.
The Security Service Management Architecture has been placed vertically across the other five layers. This is
because security service management issues arise at each and every one of the other five layers. Security
service management has a meaning in the context of each of these other layers. See Chapter 3 (pp 34) of the
SABSA Blue Book.
See TOGAF 8.1.1, Part IV: Resource Base, Chapter 39: ADM and the Zachman Framework.
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SABSA Matrix
At each of the horizontal layers of abstraction of the architecture model a series of vertical cuts through each
of these horizontal layers is made, answering the questions: what, why, how, who, where, and when. This is
called the SABSA Matrix. In fact, this is the SABSA content framework. For service management, a separate
matrix is exists.
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SABSA Lifecycle
In the SABSA Lifecycle, the development of the contextual and conceptual layers is grouped into an activity
called Strategy & Planning. This is followed by an activity called Design, which embraces the design of the
logical, physical, component, and service management architectures. The third activity is Implement,
followed by Manage & Measure. The significance of the Manage & Measure activity is that once the system
is operational, it is essential to measure actual performance against targets, to manage any deviations
observed, and to feed back operational experience into the iterative architectural development process. See
Chapter 7 (pp 113) of the SABSA Blue Book.
Strategy &
Planning
Manage &
Measure
Design
Implement
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The SABSA Business Attribute Profile is at the heart of the SABSA methodology. It is this requirements
engineering technique that makes SABSA truly unique and provides the linkage between business
requirements and technology/process design. See Chapter 6 (pp 88) of the SABSA Blue Book.
Business Attribute Profiling can also be used in the TOGAF ADM context. The alignment of the services
through the business attributes as described in the SABSA example shown in Figure 6 can be carried out
using pure TOGAF artifacts. See Figure 10.
Each SABSA Business Attribute in the example taxonomy shown in Figure 6 is an abstraction of a real
business requirement previously encountered in several organizations; most of them encountered many times
over. This example taxonomy has emerged from many years of consulting work, and provides generic
definitions for each element of the taxonomy. Therefore, it is more than just an example, but also a baseline
framework that can assist security architects in taking a comprehensive approach to security requirements
definition. The taxonomy serves as a starting point for the development of customized, situation-specific
profiles, thus avoiding the blank sheet of paper syndrome that can often be such a deterrent in getting
started.
Each SABSA Business Attribute in the example taxonomy has a detailed generic definition and some
suggested guidelines for applying metrics to that attribute, not included in this overview. A Business
Attribute Profile is built by the architects using the taxonomy as a guideline to select the relevant attributes
for the business case in hand, redefining each selected attribute in terms of the business case, developing a
measurement approach, specific metrics and performance targets, again related to the business case, and
adding new attributes and new definitions as required to fulfil the business requirements in the specific case
in hand. Thus, although the method is well-defined, the Business Attribute taxonomy can be extended as
much as is appropriate and each Business Attribute Profile is highly customized according to the business
case being considered by the architecture team.
Business Attribute Profiling is a very powerful tool that allows any unique set of business requirements to be
translated, standardized, and normalized into a SABSA format. Each profile selects only those SABSA
business attributes that apply to the specific business of the organization (creating new attributes if there are
found to be gaps). The taxonomy provides a checklist of possible attributes and the business analysts can
decide whether or not a given attribute should be included in this specific profile. The SABSA Business
Attribute Profile is an important conceptualization of the real business, and forms a core part of the
conceptual security architecture. It also serves as a set of proxy assets against which a risk assessment can
be carried out. Each individual attribute is considered as an atomic component of a much more complex
molecular business capability, which is the primary business asset at risk. (See Operational Risk and its
Relevance to Enterprise Architecture below for a more detailed discussion on operational risk management.)
It also allows the selection of metrics that are used to set performance targets as an integral part of the
SABSA Business Attribute Profile that can later be measured (e.g., did you hit the target?). This too is at
the choice of the business analysts, using either the suggested metrics in the detailed definitions of the
attributes, or creating new metrics if it seems more appropriate. This enables the creation of a real-time
operational risk dashboard or scorecard that monitors performance of operational capabilities against the
predetermined performance targets, and provides early warnings of up-coming risk events that may require
management intervention.
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Thus the Manage & Measure activity in the SABSA Lifecycle is based upon the SABSA Business Attribute
Profile that was set out during the Strategy & Planning activity, and which has been customized specifically
to conceptualize the business of this unique organization.
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SABSA and TOGAF are culturally and philosophically very similar, both being business-focused and both
having a vision of architecture as an enterprise-wide blueprint. They have different roots and different
histories, however, and therefore the actual frameworks are not identical. Each time a particular link is made,
it is possible to dispute it when viewing it from a different angle. Mappings that seem obvious for one person
make no sense to the other. No trivial, single mapping exists between TOGAF and SABSA that seems logical
to all. Making the integration work requires a degree of can do attitude and some rules-of-thumb which
avoid lengthy detailed discussions without a logical resolution.
In order to achieve a meaningful result in this context, the following rules are applied:
When an artifact seems to appear at different levels of the architecture, the highest level of abstraction is
used for the mapping. This way, the integration keeps its main focus on the enterprise level. And the
enterprise level is exactly where SABSA offers added value.
When two different mappings are both defendable, the most obvious one is used. This is because the
majority of the architects community is likely to accept the most obvious mapping, which makes it more
practical.
The scope of the integration is limited to the elements and concepts that are most important and useful.
The cornerstones of the TOGAF-SABSA integration
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The Basel Accords refer to the banking supervision accords, which are recommendations on banking laws and regulations.
Source: www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalog/management_standards/specific_applications/specific-applications_risk.htm.
4
Source: www.mor-officialsite.com/AboutM_o_R/WhatIsM_o_R.asp.
3
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with the potential to erode or enhance value. Enterprise risk management enables management to effectively
deal with uncertainty and associated risk and opportunity, enhancing the capacity to build value.5
In addition, in January 2009 The Open Group Security Forum published its Risk Taxonomy standard [6],
which defines a new approach to producing risk assessments based on a technique called Factor Analysis of
Information Risk (FAIR). This standard is gaining recognition for producing more quantitative and
therefore more repeatable results from risk assessments, including for use to complement risk assessments
using ISO/IEC 27005:2011.
Definition of Risk
All of the above standards agree closely on the definition of risk. A clear example is the following definition
from M_o_R:
Risk is an uncertain event or set of events which, should it occur, will have an effect on the achievement of
objectives. A risk consists of a combination of the probability of a perceived threat or opportunity occurring
and the magnitude of its impact on objectives.
With this definition, threat is used to describe an uncertain event that could have a negative impact on
objectives or benefits; and opportunity is used to describe an uncertain event that could have a favorable
impact on objectives or benefits.
Definition of Risk Management
Here again there is broad agreement between these international standards. As an example, ISO 31000:2009
defines risk management as:
The systematic application of management policies, procedures, and practices to the tasks of
communicating, establishing the context, identifying, analyzing, evaluating, treating, monitoring, and
reviewing risk.
Source: www.coso.org/documents/COSO_ERM_ExecutiveSummary.pdf.
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the enterprise architect is to create an operational environment in which operational risk can be optimized for
maximum business benefit and minimum business loss.
Assets at risk
The output of architecture work is the creation of operational capability. See Operational risk and enterprise
architecture above. In SABSA thinking these operational capabilities are the primary assets at risk. Examples
of such assets include:
Production capability
Service delivery capability
Marketing capability
Sales capability
Financial management capability
People management capability
Capability to satisfy customers
Capability to build and sustain brands and reputation
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In traditional information and IT risk management frameworks (such as those mentioned earlier and
exemplified by ISO/IEC 27005:2011) the assets at risk are usually classified as information assets (databases,
files, documents, etc.) and IT assets (computer hardware, software, communications networks, etc.). These
are regarded in SABSA as secondary assets, supporting the primary assets of business capability. SABSA
risk assessment, risk measurement, and risk monitoring focuses on the primary assets, not these secondary
assets.
In this respect SABSA is leading-edge thinking, challenging the traditional IT view of operational risk
management, but aligning operational risk with true business risk. The business-to-IT alignment that has been
so elusive in most IT methodologies is therefore achieved in SABSA by the application of this business risk
view.
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Authorized
Supportable
Flexible
Each business attribute is defined in terms that are meaningful to the business of the specific enterprise, the
so-called taxonomy of business attributes. An example taxonomy of attributes is provided in the SABSA
documentation, along with generic definitions (already discussed earlier in this paper). This taxonomy is for
example purposes only, and the concept of a Business Attribute Profile is that new attributes can be defined
to suit the specific business goals. Not every attribute in the example taxonomy may be applicable to a
particular business. Every Business Attribute Profile is customized to represent the requirements of a specific
business capability in a specific enterprise. This means that each business capability or set of capabilities will
attract a specific Business Attribute Profile.
If a business decides that a given attribute is relevant to a capability (primary asset) then there must be a
means by which it can be measured answering the question: at what point do we have enough of this
attribute to satisfy our needs? This is achieved by defining a measurement approach, a specific metric (or
metrics), and a performance target for that attribute in terms of the specific metric(s).
Thus, Business Attribute Profiling is the conceptualization of the primary business assets and is used to
represent the business requirements for a given business capability. It enables enterprise architects to consult
business capability owners and to translate their business requirements into a standardized, normalized format
that can be worked on by technology designers and process engineers to build the capability according to the
real business needs. Because these requirements have been quantified, it is also possible to determine the
effectiveness and efficiency of the capabilities, and to monitor actual performance of the processes and
systems during the operational lifecycle.
This methodology is powerful and one which TOGAF may find useful to include so as to satisfy the
requirements management process.
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Figure 9: Alignment in the SABSA Matrix between Business Drivers and Services through Business
Attribute Profiling
Figure 9 shows the key role that the Business Attribute Profile plays. It organizes and adds business context
to the control objectives (a.k.a. security requirements), indirectly defining the relationship with the security
services. It also is directly linked to the business drivers in the Contextual Layer. Readers should realize that
the arrows reflect a bundle of all the actual relationships between the entities present in both boxes.
The following SABSA artifacts are linked together to provide the traceability from business needs to security
services:
Business Decisions: Business Drivers, Taxonomy of Business Assets, including Goals & Objectives.
Business Attribute Profile: Expressing the assets that need protection.
Risk Management Objectives: Enablement and Control Objectives, a set of specific security
requirements. These control objectives can be selected from a relevant control framework, such as
ISO/IEC 27001:2005 [8] or COBIT [9], as long as they are justified by the Business Attribute Profile.
However, SABSA encourages a broader view by mentioning enablement objectives as well, which
specifically relate to enabling an opportunity.
Process Maps and Services: The Security Services Catalog, an overview of the security services that are
defined to meet the security requirements.
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organization are already defined elsewhere in the enterprise. If so, the activity in Phase A: Architecture
Vision involves ensuring that existing definitions are current and clarifying any areas of ambiguity. If
not, it involves defining these essential items for the first time. Business scenarios can be used to discover
and document business requirements. See TOGAF 9 for more detail.
In TOGAF, the key interests that are crucially important to architecture stakeholders are called concerns.
Concerns are captured in Phase A and may pertain to any aspect of the system's functioning,
development, or operation, including considerations such as performance, reliability, security,
distribution, and scalability. Addressing these concerns determines stakeholder buy-in and the
acceptability of the architecture and resulting systems.
Business Attribute Profiling: This describes the level of protection required for each business capability
(see Business Attribute Profiling earlier in this paper).
Requirements Catalog: This stores the architecture requirements of which security requirements form
an integral part.
The Business Attribute Profile can form the basis for all quality requirements (including security
requirements) and therefore has significant potential to fully transform the current TOGAF requirements
management approach.
Business and Information System Service Catalogs: TOGAF defines a business service catalog (in
Phase B: Business Architecture) and an information system service catalog (Phase C: Information
Systems Architecture). The creation of the information system services in addition to the core concept of
business services is intended to allow more sophisticated modeling of the service portfolio.
The Security Service Catalog: As defined by the SABSA Logical Layer, this will form an integral part
of the TOGAF Information System Service Catalogs.
As described above, SABSA Business Attribute Profiling can be used within a TOGAF-based architecture,
using only TOGAF artifacts. When doing so, the scope of the Business Attribute Profile can easily be
expanded to address all relevant business requirements and not just the security attributes. This approach, in
which Business Attribute Profiling is applied to the entire ADM requirements management process, provides
a significantly more robust method than is currently specified within the TOGAF standard, and ensures that
the TOGAF goal of business alignment can realistically be achieved.
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Business Goals
Business Principles
Strategic Drivers
Stakeholder Concerns
IS Service Catalog
Requirements Catalog
Figure 10: Requirements Management in TOGAF using SABSA Business Attribute Profiling
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Figure 11: The Business Attribute Profile Mapped onto the TOGAF Content Metamodel
The most suitable location in the current metamodel for the Business Attribute Profile is in the Motivation
Extension, at the location of the object Goal. Goal has exactly the right relationships, namely with Driver
(compare with SABSA business driver) and Objective (compare with SABSA control objective).
The object Goal has the following object attributes which also apply to the Business Attribute Profile:
ID (Unique Object Identifier)
Name (brief name of the object)
Description (textual description of the object)
Category (user-definable categorization taxonomy)
Source (location where the information was collected)
Owner (owner of the architecture object)
The object attributes that should be added for the Business Attribute Profile are:
Measurement approach (for example, measure capacity usage)
Specific metric(s) (for example, number of gigabytes of storage available)
Performance target (for example, at least 20% available at least 95% of the time)
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Figure 12: The Business Attribute Profile Position in the TOGAF Content Metamodel Motivation Extension
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SABSA
Manage
&
Measure
SABSA
Strategy
&
Planning
Phase
SABSA
Implement
Phase
SABSA
Design
Phase
This helicopter view of both process models identifies possible overlapping areas.
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SABSA
Strategy &
Planning
Phase
SABSA scopes architectures using the Domain Modeling technique and this covers all SABSA phases in the
SABSA Lifecycle. As the SABSA phases extend beyond the core phases of the TOGAF ADM, the scoping
provided by the SABSA Domain Model extends beyond these core phases of TOGAF, both in terms of
solution design and system and process management during the operational lifecycle. The relationship
between these two scoping approaches is shown in Figure 15.
What this diagram means is that SABSA Domain Modeling is so generic and versatile that it can be applied
to the enterprise in almost any relevant conceptual dimension. For example, taking the organizational
dimension, the SABSA super-domain/sub-domain hierarchy would run something like: extended
enterprise/enterprise/business unit/line of business/department/team. Another possible domain dimension
could be functional roles within the enterprise organizational structure, and for those organizations that
deploy matrix management (functions versus business processes) the domain modeling technique works
extremely well. Yet another domain hierarchy can be based on views of the enterprise from a
strategic/tactical/operational lifecycle dimension. Domain modeling is so flexible as to not require the formal
definitions that TOGAF uses for various scopes. SABSA allows the architect to define scopes entirely based
on business need with no predetermined framework to constrain the model. Another advantage to this
flexibility is the inheritance of Business Attribute Profiles down through a domain hierarchy, but a
description of this concept is well beyond the scope of this White Paper.
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For this TOGAF-SABSA integration White Paper, if an artifact could in theory be mapped against different
levels of architectures, the enterprise level is always chosen above the solution level. Where applicable, these
scoping and levelling consequences are mentioned for each security artifact.
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Business Drivers
Security Principles
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Management
Security Audit
Security Awareness
Control Objectives
Classification of Services
These security artifacts are explained in more detail in the following sections for each TOGAF phase.
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The Preliminary Phase establishes the security context required to guide the security architecture design.
Business Drivers
Security Principles
Key Risk Areas
Risk Appetite
Security Resource Plan
Security Stakeholders
Business Risk Model
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Audit
Security Management
Control Objectives
To build the security context, the following security artifacts need to be determined during this phase. These
artifacts can be integrated into existing architecture documentation, but it is important that they be properly
identified and that they convey the necessary information to make quality decisions:
Business Drivers for Security the subset of TOGAF business drivers impacting security, presented as
an integral part of the overall architecture business drivers artifact or deliverable.
Security Principles the subset of Business Principles addressing security architecture. This is
presented as an integral part of the overall Architecture Principles artifact or deliverable. Security
principles like other architecture principles will provide valuable guidance to making business decisions
to comply with the enterprises risk appetite.
Key Risk Areas the list of the key risk areas within the architecture scope. The key risk areas should be
related to the business opportunities which the security architecture enables using the risk appetite artifact
which informs the balance of risk versus opportunity. The key risk area should be included in the overall
architecture risk management deliverable produced during the Preliminary Phase.
Risk Appetite describes the enterprises attitude towards risk and provides decision-making guidance
to the organization to balance the amount of risk taken to achieve an expected outcome. The risk appetite
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could be expressed as, for example, a boundary on a risk/business impact and likelihood grid, profit, and
loss measures or qualitative measures (zero tolerance for loss of life or regulatory compliance breaches).
Risk appetite can also be represented by suitably worded security principles or produced as a stand-alone
deliverable if a key stakeholder exists who needs to specifically approve it. It defines the level of risk
(damage) that the organization is willing to accept and what their strategy is in defining this level. For
risks above this acceptable level, it defines the strategy used for mitigation (transference, avoidance).
Security Resource Plan based on the content of the artifacts and the characteristics of the planned
architecture project, it must be decided during the Preliminary Phase which security resources are
required to deliver the security elements. Finding answers to the following questions through sufficient
stakeholder analysis in the Preliminary Phase can help determine the security-related effort required:
o
Do key and influential security or risk-related stakeholders exist who require specific security
views?
Does the architecture address high-risk areas or is the risk appetite low which warrants security
subject matter expertise?
Can security support be requested on an as-needed basis from an existing security team or are
dedicated security architecture resources required as part of the overall architecture team?
During the Preliminary Phase it is decided which security artifacts are really needed in the enterprise
architecture and which will be created by whom. It might not be necessary to deliver all security artifacts in
order to address security properly. The reverse applies too: delivering all artifacts does not guarantee that
security is taken care of properly more artifacts may be required.
For enterprise-level architectures, the artifacts need to be created based on discussions with key stakeholders;
preliminary assessments carried out by the architecture team; and assessing relevant statutes, applicable
jurisdictions, legislation, and regulations.
For solution-level architectures, existing sources might be available. For instance, an enterprise-level security
policy or risk assessment describes the security principles, risk appetite, and key risk areas for a particular
solution context.
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In general, Phase A: Architecture Vision describes enough of the TOGAF ADM Phases B, C, and D to
ensure that key stakeholders can agree to the end-state which represents a solution to a defined problem.
In Phase A sufficient security-specific architecture design is carried out to:
Satisfy the security stakeholders that the end-state does not represent any unknown or unacceptable risk
and aligns with corporate policies, standards, and principles
Satisfy business stakeholders in particular those who control the budget that the security architecture
is instrumental in enabling and supporting the overall architecture required to deliver the business
opportunities and benefits identified
In Phase A, it is essential to identify the complete list of all (including security-related) stakeholders and to
determine their requirements for approval of the architecture engagement. This might simply involve the
validation of the stakeholder analysis carried out in the Preliminary Phase or require a more involved activity
to identify the stakeholders with informal power to influence approval.
The stakeholder requirements for approval are gathered to determine the security blueprint needed to address
the various concerns the stakeholders may have. The security blueprint is defined at a high level giving
sufficient assurance to the stakeholders that the final artifacts and deliverables will address their concerns
appropriately. The subsequent three TOGAF phases complete the blueprint and add the required detail.
Business Drivers
Security Principles
Key Risk Areas
Risk Appetite
Security Resource Plan
Security Stakeholders
Business Risk Model
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Awareness
Security Audit
Security Management
Control Objectives
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In some cases stakeholders may insist on a business case which describes the benefits of the security
architecture, such as reduced risk and enablement of the overall architecture. The Business Attribute Profile7
can be useful as a basis for the business case. As a specific Business Attribute Profile may not yet be
available, the SABSA-provided Business Attribute Profile can be used as a starting point. If this does not fit
the business case, a scenario-based approach may be used to obtain stakeholder approval.
The views and business cases must build on the outputs from the Preliminary Phase such as security
principles, drivers, key risk, and risk appetite/strategy and should be an integral part of the overall
Architecture Vision deliverables.
It is important to keep the evidence of stakeholder and budget approval at hand to justify continued security
architecture development in case of changes to the overall environment or architecture engagement. This
output could also be used to communicate the impact changes to the stakeholders and budget when business
or external drivers change.
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The security elements of Phase B: Business Architecture comprise business-level trust, risk, and controls,
independent from specific IT or other systems within the specific scope of the architecture engagement.
Business Drivers
Security Principles
Key Risk Areas
Risk Appetite
Security Resource Plan
Security Stakeholders
Business Risk Model
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Audit
Security Management
Control Objectives
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Applicable Law and Regulation determines the specific laws and regulations that apply within the
scope of the enterprise architecture engagement.
Control Frameworks determine the suitable set of control frameworks that would best satisfy the
requirements and address the risks related to the engagement scope and context.
Security Domain Model9 a security domain represents a set of assets in the engagement scope which
could be described by a similar set of business attributes (i.e., a security domain has a set of very similar
business attributes for all entities in that domain). The security domain model describes the interactions
between the various domains, parties, and actors and must be aligned with the Business Architecture
model. This includes defining all people, processes, and system actors known at this stage, including
third parties and external actors. The security domain model helps in defining responsibility areas, where
responsibility is exchanged with external parties and distinguishes between areas of different security
levels and can inform the engagement scope, as shown Figure 15.
Trust Framework10 the trust framework describes trust relationships between various entities in the
security domain model and on what basis this trust exists. Trust relationships can be unidirectional,
bidirectional, or non-existent. The onus for assessing trust is the responsibility of those choosing to enter
into the contracts and their legal counsel. It is important to note that technology (e.g., digital certificates,
SAML, etc.) cannot create trust, but can only convey in the electronic world the trust that already exists
in the real world through business relationships, legal agreements, and security policy consistencies.
Security Organization the corporate organization of risk management and information security which
assigns ownership of security risks and defines the security management responsibilities and processes.
Security management processes include risk assessment, the definition of control objectives, the
definition and proper implementation of security measures, reporting about security status (measures
defined, in place, and working) and the handling of security incidents.
Security Policy Architecture11 the security policy architecture addresses the alignment of operational
risk management in general with the various security aspects such as physical security, information
security, and business continuity. Within the scope of the architecture engagement, decide which existing
policy elements can be re-used or have to be developed new. The hierarchy should map the policy
development to the various stages in the ADM.
Security Services Catalog a list of security-related business services, defined as part of the Business
Services Catalog.
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The security elements of Phase C: Information Systems Architectures comprise information system-related
security services and their security classification.
The artifacts described in more detail are:
Security Services Catalog a list of services which provide security-specific functionality as part of the
overall information system architecture. It is mapped to the principles, drivers, risks, and threats
determined in earlier phases to provide traceability and justification. The Security Services Catalog must
be produced both for the existing and target situation if a gap analysis has to be carried out. The Security
Services Catalog can be produced based on the reference list given in the SABSA Blue Book.12 This list
is part of the SABSA Logical Layer and needs to be amended to fit the scope and abstraction level of the
TOGAF architecture project. For instance, a security policy service might be needed as a security
measure for enterprise-level TOGAF architectures, but is likely to be available as input for solution or
logical service architectures. When integrating TOGAF and SABSA, the security services become part of
the TOGAF Information System Services Catalog.
Business Drivers
Security Principles
Key Risk Areas
Risk Appetite
Security Resource Plan
Security Stakeholders
Business Risk Model
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Audit
Security Management
Control Objectives
Classification of Services
12
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Classification of Services the assignment of a security classification to the list of services in the
Information System Services catalog according to the enterprise classification scheme. In most cases this
scheme is defined and described in the corporate information security policy and is based on the
information processed or stored by the service.
Security Rules, Practices, and Procedures are relevant artifacts for solution-level architectures. They
are mentioned here because at the solution architecture level guidelines and designs for rules, practices,
and procedures are expected to be produced in Phase C and D.
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The security elements of Phase D: Technology Architecture comprise security rules, practices and
procedures, and security standards:
Security Rules, Practices, and Procedures artifacts mainly relevant for solution-level architectures,
mentioned here because at solution architecture level guidelines and designs for rules, practices, and
procedures are expected to be produced in Phase C and D.
Security Standards guide or mandate the use of technical, assurance, or other relevant security
standards. The artifact is expected to comprise publicly available standards such as Common Criteria,
TLS, and SAML.
In most cases the development of specific technology security architecture artifacts is not necessary as long
as it incorporates the relevant security controls and mechanisms defined in earlier phases. The security
architect must ensure that the required controls are included in the Technology Architecture and verify
whether the controls are used in an effective and efficient way. This includes the technology for the provision
and regulation of system resources, such as electric power, processing capacity, network bandwidth, and
memory.
A security stakeholder may request the creation of a specific Technology Architecture security view or
deliverable which describes all security-related technology components and how they inter-relate. This
deliverable or view should describe which business risks are mitigated using technology and how.
Business Drivers
Security Principles
Key Risk Areas
Risk Appetite
Security Resource Plan
Security Stakeholders
Business Risk Model
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Audit
Security Management
Control Objectives
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No specific security-related architecture artifacts are produced in this phase. However, in defining the
roadmap and deciding which architecture elements must be implemented first, it is imperative that the
security risks are evaluated and that risk owners are consulted when defining the place on the roadmap for
high priority mitigations. This phase could also be used to verify the process and results, feeding back to the
business goals and drivers.
The efficacy of existing security services and controls earmarked for re-use must be verified to ensure that
the end-state contains security measures which work and integrate well. If existing services and controls are
not satisfactory, decide whether to include remediation in the migration plan or re-iterate Phases B through D
to include new services and components.
Phase F: Migration Planning
No specific security architecture aspects apply to this phase; however, as part of the overall planning care
must be taken to ensure that, for each stage on the roadmap, appropriate risks and associated controls are
identified.
For instance, a pilot project which processes personal data must be fully compliant with the data protection
act and requires an effective security infrastructure even though it only processes a small amount of data and
supports only a few users.
Program and project managers should note that management of program and project risks can also be
facilitated through the development of a Business Attribute Profile that focuses on the planning and execution
of program or project tasks, leading to the provision of a real-time project risk dashboard. After all, program
and project risks are simply special categories of operational risk.
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Security architecture implementation governance provides assurance that the detailed design and
implemented processes and systems adhere to the overall security architecture. This ensures that no
unacceptable risk is created by deviations from Architecture Principles and implementation guidelines.
Business Drivers
Security Principles
Key Risk Areas
Risk Appetite
Security Resource Plan
Security Stakeholders
Business Risk Model
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Management
Security Audit
Security Awareness
Control Objectives
Review of system configurations with security impact to ensure configuration changes have not
compromised security design
Audit of the design, deployment, and operations against business objectives, security policies, and
control objectives
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Functional and non-functional testing, including security, performance, and maintainability testing
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Phase H does not produce tangible security outputs but defines two processes essential for continued
alignment between the business requirements and the architecture: risk management and security architecture
governance. Even though they are not formal artifacts, they are added here to emphasize their importance.
Business Drivers
Security Principles
Key Risk Areas
Risk Appetite
Security Resource Plan
Security Stakeholders
Business Risk Model
Control Frameworks
Security Architecture
Governance
Security Awareness
Security Audit
Security Management
Control Objectives
Classification of Services
Risk Management the process in which the existing architecture is continuously evaluated regarding
changes to business opportunity and security threat. If based on the results of this process, the current
architecture is deemed unsuitable to mitigate changed or new risks or constrains the business too much in
exploiting new opportunities, a decision on architecture change must be made.
Security Architecture Governance the process in which decisions are made on changes to the existing
architecture, either by minor changes in the current iteration or by means of a completely new iteration.
Change is driven by new requirements or changes in the environment. Changes in security requirements can,
for instance, be caused by changes in the threat environment, changed compliance requirements, or changes
due to discovered vulnerabilities in the existing processes and solutions. Changes required due to securityrelated causes are often more disruptive than a simplification or incremental change.
Due care must be taken in deciding whether a security change triggers a new iteration though the TOGAF
ADM cycle; for instance, when enterprise risk appetite changes; a seemingly small security requirement
change can easily trigger a new architecture development cycle.
An example of where changes can be applied within the existing architecture is when security standards or
requirements change. This is usually less disruptive since the trade-off for their adoption is based on the value
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of the change that is, evaluation of the risk the trade-off between the opportunity for business
improvement, the perceived threat to the business in security terms, and the threat posed by the change itself,
which would perhaps be very disruptive and expensive. This is an excellent example of where the SABSA
concept of balancing risks can be applied to decision-making.
It is therefore essential that the architecture change board or any other governance structure that is
responsible for applying appropriate architecture change management comprises suitable security skilled
individuals.
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Appendix A: Glossary
The following definitions are relevant for the SABSA and TOGAF integration:
Business directives
Used in Section 6.2.2 and Chapter 6 not a core term in TOGAF in explanatory text. TOGAF assumes the
reader knows what a business directive is.
TOGAF standard dictionary definition of directive: an official or authoritative instruction.
Business drivers
Business drivers for security the subset of TOGAF business drivers impacting security architecture:
Used throughout in the text. In text TOGAF assumes reader knows what a business driver is.
TOGAF standard dictionary definition of driver: (of a fact or feeling) compel (someone) to act in a
particular way, especially one that is considered undesirable or inappropriate; [ trans.] bring (someone)
forcibly into a specified negative state; [trans.] force (someone) to work to an excessive extent.
Drive defined specifically in the metamodel: an external or internal condition that motivates the
organization to define its goals. An example of an external driver for change in regulation or compliance
rules which, for example, require changes to the way an organization operates; i.e., Sarbanes-Oxley in the
US.
Business imperatives
Not used in TOGAF 9.
Government and legal obligations that an agency must fulfil that may not be explicit in their business strategy
documents; for example, payroll, financial reporting obligations, ministerial briefs.
Business principles
Used in two forms in TOGAF. One is the Architecture Principles that address the Business Architecture
domain. The second is overall Business Principles that do not necessarily have an architectural context.
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Architecture Principles are defined as: a qualitative statement of intent that should be met by the
architecture. Has at least a supporting rationale and a measure of importance. Business Principles would be
read as: a qualitative statement of intent that should be met by the Business Architecture.
Business strategies
Not a core term in TOGAF.
Used to provide context throughout. Defined in context in Phase B as: business strategy typically defines
what to achieve the goals and drivers, and metrics for success but not how to get there.
TOGAF standard dictionary definition of strategy is: a plan of action or policy designed to achieve a major
or overall aim.
Enterprise architecture
In this White Paper, enterprise architecture is used as an inclusive term to refer to all flavors of
architectural views operational, system, security, etc.
Risk appetite
Describes the enterprises attitude towards risk and provides decision-making guidance to the organization to
balance the amount of risk taken to achieve an expected outcome. The risk appetite could be expressed as, for
example, a boundary on a risk/business impact and likelihood grid, profit, and loss measures or qualitative
measures (zero tolerance for loss of life or regulatory compliance breaches). It could also be reflected in
security principles.
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Security principles
The subset of business principles addressing security architecture.
TOGAF does not define specific security principles. This issue is, however, included in the Security Forum
forthcoming revision to W055 which will be submitted as complementary to this TOGAF and SABSA
Integration White Paper.
See Business principles.
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Preliminary Phase
The Preliminary Phase is about defining where, what, why, who, and how we do architecture in the
enterprise concerned. The main aspects are:
Defining the enterprise
Identifying key drivers and elements in the organizational context
Defining the requirements for architecture work
Defining the Architecture Principles that will inform any architecture work
Defining the framework to be used
Defining the relationships between management frameworks
Evaluating the enterprise architecture maturity
Translated to SABSA, it means that before using SABSA, first decide which specific parts to use and in what
format the enterprise security architecture will be delivered. This phase determines what will be delivered and
which methods or concepts will be used for that. Only if this is clear, it is possible to cooperate and deliver a
security architecture.
This phase also includes the definition of abstraction layers that the enterprise security architecture is to
contain. It may only be used at enterprise level, or perhaps used to work out some logical services in separate
security views of the architecture.
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Business owner
ICT director
Internal auditor
Business Drivers
Business Risk Model
Business Attributes
Governability
Usability
Maintainability
Security
Control Objectives
Profile:
Sensitive data
Profile: Multi-supplier
environment
Profile:
High liability
Profile:
High trust
Baseline
Logical Layer
Measures
Security Strategies
Security Standards
Viewpoints
Customer
Data
Application
Network
Platform
Physical
Organization
Figure 24: Example of an Enterprise Security Architecture Format (in this case only three architectural
layers are used)
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SABSA
Manage
&
Measure
SABSA
Strategy
&
Planning
Phase
SABSA
Implement
Phase
SABSA
Design
Phase
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Nested architectures
Each architecture typically does not exist in isolation and must therefore sit within a governance hierarchy.
Broad and summary architectures set the direction for narrow and detailed architectures.
TOGAF contains a number of techniques that can be employed to use the ADM as a process that supports
such hierarchies of architectures. In cases where larger-scale architectures need to be developed, the ADM
uses Phase F: Migration Planning of one ADM cycle to initiate new projects, which will also develop
architectures.
Capability Architecture: A highly detailed description of the architectural approach to realize a
particular solution or solution aspect.
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Segment Architecture: A detailed, formal description of areas within an enterprise, used at the program
or portfolio level to organize and align change activity.
Strategic Architecture: A summary formal description of the enterprise, providing an organizing
framework for operational and change activity, and an executive-level, long-term view for direction
setting.
This concept of nested architectures can also be applied to SABSA. For example, to create security
architectures at three architecture levels: Enterprise, Domain, and Solution. At each level, the SABSA layers
can be matched.
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References
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
Risk Taxonomy, Technical Standard (C081), January 2009, published by The Open Group; refer
to: www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/c081.htm.
[7]
Open Information Security Management Maturity Model (O-ISM3), Technical Standard (C102),
February 2011, published by The Open Group; refer to:
www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/c102.htm.
[8]
[9]
Control OBjectives for Information and related Technology (COBIT), Version 4.0, IT Governance
Institute, 2005.
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