Follow the money, and you will find the mafia.
This is a famous quote by the Italian magistrate Giovanni Falcone. The mafia is (or was) really good at obfuscating their activities. However if you “follow the money” you will most likely understand how their operations work.
However, did you know that using the same technique for data in an organization application or system will help uncover and clarify how the data is used?
Follow the data, and you will find the organization.
Fortunately, the TOGAF has certain tools that help an enterprising enterprise architect “follow the data” and cut through the chatter to understand how the organization works.
Here are some of the more useful TOGAF Data Diagrams
Data Dissemination Diagram
A data dissemination diagram is used to depict how data flows between systems (entity, services, applications) in an organization. This diagram helps architects and stakeholders understand how data is generated, processed, distributed, and consumed.
Here’s an example:
You can tweak this diagram to show how logical entities are mapped to how the data is saved physically.
Data Lifecycle Diagram
Most places think that once data is created, it is kept forever. While this is true for many things (like your photos), it is not true for some of the other things (like some financial information or information about us we want deleted from company servers).
A Data Lifecycle diagram helps plan things out so that it is clear how data flows from the time it is created to the time it is destroyed.
Here is an example:
Data Migration Diagram
Are you modernizing your systems from a legacy system to a newer one? A Data Migration diagram will help you plan, communicate, and eventually successfully migrate your data.
A Data Migration Diagram has three general sections:
- The “baseline” data component. This is the current state of the data.
- The “target” data component. This is the ideal state of the data.
- The “migration” data component. These components show the steps on how the data is migrated from “baseline” to “target”.
Here is an example:
You can also use a Spreadsheet to clearly show how one data element is transferred to another one.
Data Security Diagram
One of the most important things about managing data is securing it. It’s amazing that this is one of the most overlooked pieces of data architecture. Fortunately, TOGAF has a tool called the Data Security Diagram which guides us in documenting how data is accessed through your system.
To create a Data Security Diagram, simply identify all the ways (legal and illegal) an actor can access your data.
Here’s an example. Note that I even identified how an actor could get to the data through accessing the physical location:
Takeaways
Your data is one of the most important assets in your organization. Documenting how it flows, how it is migrated, how it is secure is important. It is important because it allows you to determine how your organization works in an organized and secure way. Using Data Diagrams is just one way to make this happen.
I hope you find this article helpful. I also hope you can start using this Data Diagram tool in your organization. Cheers!
 — Sustainably Lazy)