Capture standard platform data
A standard platform is a package of platform elements derived from components and can be used to specify application platforms. Standard platforms allow you to bundle technology components in order to improve interoperability, performance, scalability, and reliability. Standard platforms serve as a kind of blueprint architecture or architecture pattern and can be used as building blocks to create and structure other more complex standard platforms that can be used when specifying application platforms.
The license package Enterprise Architecture Management is required to work with standard platforms.
Users with the user profiles Portfolio Manager and Portfolio Admin can add and edit standard platforms in Alfabet. Click for an overview of permission concepts.
Go to Technology Architecture > Standard Platforms data workbench and click New > Standard Platform.
Click the Navigate button next to a standard platform to open its content area. Specify the standard platform's attributes as well as the relationships that the standard platform has to other assets in the repository.
Try to capture as much information as possible about the standard platform because complete data considerably improves the results of business questions and other analytics.
Once a standard platform is in the repository, you can define more details about it in the Standard Platforms data workbench.
Per default, the data workbench displays a limited set of basic attributes. You can add more columns via the Structure column to capture other attributes directly in the data workbench.
Or specify and analyze the standard platform in detail in its content area . In the data workbench, click the Navigate button for a standard platform to open its content area > Overview page.
Define the standard platform's basic data. All mandatory fields must be defined to create the standard platform and save it.
- Name: (Mandatory) Enter a unique name for the standard platform.
- Version: (Mandatory) Enter a version number for the standard platform. The name and version number of the standard platform should be unique.
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Status: (Optional) This is an approval status and typically indicates the level of quality of the information about the standard platform. The release status determines whether a standard platform can or cannot be deleted. Possible values are:
- Draft: The standard platform has only mandatory data defined.
- Under Review: The standard platform is documented and being reviewed. A standard platform with this release status cannot be deleted.
- Approved: The standard platform has been approved by the responsible stakeholders. A standard platform cannot be deleted when it has an approved release status. A standard platform with this release status cannot be deleted.
- Data imported: The data regarding this standard platform has been imported from an external system. Additional changes may be required to improve the data quality. A standard platform with this release status can be deleted.
- Trash: The standard platform is no longer valid and can be deleted.
- Standard Platform Category: Select the standard platform category that the standard platform is assigned to. The standard platform can only be assigned to one category.
- IT Capability: Specify the IT capability that the standard platform supports in the IT architecture..
- Authorized Access tab: The user who creates the standard platform is the authorized user per default. This can be changed. Select one or more authorized user groups that shall have write permissions to the object. All users in the authorized user group can edit the standard platform.
Define the standard platform's lifecycle. Go to the Lifecycle Data attribute section and specify the following:
- Start Date and End Date: (Mandatory) The start and end date captures the period when the standard platform is actively running and can be used in the company. This is also when the Object State attribute should be specified as Active. Click the calendar icon to select the date or enter the date in the date format Month/Day/Year. For example: 4/30/2023
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Object State: (Mandatory) The object state describes the use of the standard platform in the real word. This can be understood as the operational status of the physical server.Possible values are:
- Plan: The standard platform is proposed to be used and still in the stages of planning and building.
- Active: The standard platform is currently and used now. The active period begins with the standard platform's start date and ends with the end date.
- Retired: The standard platform is no longer used.
The object state should be changed from Plan to Active once the standard platform's start date is reached. It should be changed to Retire when the standard platform's end data is reached.
Assigning users and organizations to roles is critical to understanding responsibility for assets in the IT and is required to answer the business question Who is responsible for our assets?.
Responsibilities are based on preconfigured role types. Your company may also configure custom role types via the Portfolio Admin user profile. Depending on the role type, a specified user and/or a specified organization may fulfill the responsibility for the standard platform. A user assigned responsibility via a role has read-only permissions to the standard platform. To change data about the standard platform, they must also be specified as an authorized user or member of an authorized user group.
Roles can be assigned to a standard platform in the Standard Platforms data workbench or the standard platform content area via Overview > Responsibilities.
Each role column represents the responsibility that a user or organization has for the standard platform. A person or organization can have one of the following roles or a custom role added by your company:
- Architect: A person who is responsible for the governance of the standard platform.
- IT Owner: A person or IT organization that owns the standard platform and thus typically responsible for approval decisions.
- Stakeholder: A person or organization that has an interest in the standard platform and therefore requires read-only access permissions.
- Click a column cell to open a selector to define the role for the standard platform. Depending on the role column, the selector may have a section for both Person and Organization.
- Expand the relevant section and select the person or organization to assign their role to the standard platform.
A standard platform is a package of platform elements derived from components and can be used to specify application platforms. Standard platforms allow you to bundle technology components in order to improve interoperability, performance, scalability, and reliability. Standard platforms serve as a kind of blueprint architecture or architecture pattern and can be used as building blocks to create and structure other more complex standard platforms that can be used when specifying application platforms. The platform architecture is structured by the preconfigured platform layers and platform tiers.
The components in the standard platform architecture can be added to the relevant platform tier/platform layer of an application platform or another standard platform.
Go to the standard platform's content area > Overview > Standard Platform Architecture.
Add components to the standard platform. Click the matrix cell where you want to add a component and click the button. Select the component in the selector to add to the standard platform architecture.
Add components from an existing standard platform. Click the plus sign button > Copy Elements from Other Standard Platform and select the standard platform whose components you want to add. The individual components are added to the standard platform and are shaded orange. You can remove any components via
3-dots button > Delete. To delete all components added via the standard platform, select a component in the matrix > Delete All Platform Elements Derived from the Standard Platform.
Embed all components from an existing standard platform. Click the plus sign button > Add Existing Standard Platform and select the standard platform whose components you want to add. The embedded standard platform itself is not an element in the selected standard platform - only its platform elements are assigned to the selected standard platform. Embedded components are shaded grey and cannot be deleted from the standard platform. To remove all components from the embedded standard platform, select an embedded component >
plus sign button > Detach Associated Standard Platform.
Hide a platform layer or platform tier. To remove a platform tier or layer that is not relevant for the architecture of the standard platform, select the platform layer or platform tier in the matrix axis and click the plus sign button > Hide Selected Platform Tier/Platform Layer. Or click
plus sign button > Axes Quick Editor and select/deselect the platform tier and platform layers in the editor to specify the matrix.