Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) is a 1990s reference model for enterprise architecture development, defined by the United States Department of Defense (DoD) in 1986.
TAFIM provides enterprise-level guidance for the evolution of the DoD Technical infrastructure. It identifies the services, standards, concepts, components, and configurations that can be used to guide the development of technical architectures that meet specific mission requirements.[2]
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The "Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management" (TAFIM) defined:[3]
It also subsumes the widely accepted Open Systems Interface (OSI) reference model within the network services and communications area.
This architecture, and associated model, is not a specific system design. Rather, it establishes a common vocabulary and defines a set of services and interfaces common to information systems. It identifies standards and guidelines in terms of the architecture services and interfaces. The architecture serves to facilitate the development of plans that will lead to interoperability between mission area applications, portability across mission areas and cost reductions through the use of common services.[3]
The development of TAFIM started around 1986 at the US Defense Information Systems Agency/Center for Information Management. The first concept of TAFIM was derived from the NIST Application Portability Profile and the IEEE P1003.00SE models.[3]
The first draft of TAFIM was completed in 1991 with the TAFIM Technical Reference Model (TAFIM TRM). This technical reference model wanted to use open systems and new technologies available in the commercial market, to develop a DoD-wide application.[4] The TAFIM project has resulted in an eight-volume Information Technology Architecture "how-to" manual, see image, published in 1996 by the Department of Defense.
The original development of TOGAF Version 1 in 1995 was based on the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management. The US Department of Defense gave The Open Group explicit permission and encouragement to create TOGAF by building on the TAFIM, which itself was the result of many years of development effort and many millions of dollars of US Government investment.[5]
The 1996 US DoD publication on TAFIM was the latest version published.[6] TAFIM has been cancelled as a stand alone document in 1999.[2] In 2000 the whole TAFIM concept and its regulations have been re-evaluated and found inconsistent with the newly developed DoDAF architecture direction. For this reason all references to TAFIM have been removed from DoD documentation since then.[6]
Defense’s technical and data standards are designed to enable systems to easily interoperate and transfer information. Its standard definitions for data elements are intended to ensure that users of all Defense systems define the same data in the same way and have a common understanding of their meaning. Defense has developed or is in the process of defining technical standards in the 1990s with the Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM), the Joint Technical Architecture (JTA), and the Defense Information Infrastructure Common Operating Environment (DII COE).[7]
The Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) is responsible for developing, obtaining from commercial sources, and maintaining the compilation of Defense Information Infrastructure technical standards, and it is responsible for maintaining a Defense data dictionary system as a repository of data requirements and for facilitating the cross-functional coordination and approval of standard formats, definitions, etc. PSAs, the military services, Defense agencies, and Joint Chiefs of Staff are responsible for reaching agreement on the standards and approving them as DOD standard data elements. DISA is then responsible for disseminating the approved standard data elements for use throughout the Department.[7]
The Standards-Based Architecture (SBA) planning process. defined by the TAFIM, consists of seven distinct, but interdependent, phases. Each phase of the SBA process is intended to create specific deliverable products and or documents, that guide the subsequent phase. The seven phases are briefly outlined below.[8]
The "Integrated Model of Four Architectural Views" is part of the target architecture, defined in the TAFIM. It gives a vision on the organization in all of its architectural views, especially the work architecture. The model, see figure, depicts an overall framework to develop the target architecture deliverable. Each view of the target architecture has some overlap with aspects of the other views. This overlap supports the argument that the model depicts the developing of a single, integrated architecture.[8]
The entire enterprise, as defined, includes Work organization, Information, Application, and Technology. This leads to the four different views:[8]
This gallery with the four views shows the interrelationship between the four views as mentioned earlier. In the view models of later Enterprise Architecture frameworks, such as the DoDAF the views are presented in layers and no longer interconnected.