Digital Identity

Reference Architecture Best Practices

As you develop reference architectures for use in you organization, there are several best practices that you should keep in mind.

Use the governance process

An RA is a component of the IMA and is subject to the same governance process as any other IMA component. This implies that the RA is reviewed frequently and updated as necessary.

Customize

A reference architecture should be customized to fit the organization. As we'll see, what we're calling "the" reference architecture can actually be a collection of architectural recommendations. Each recommendation should be specific to problems that your organization is facing and be the basis for systems that you care about in your business.

Implement incrementally

As we saw, in mitigating pitfalls, RAs frequently needed to be used in a piecemeal fashion. A good RA should be designed so that it can be scaled and customized to fit project needs. Recommendations for scaling and customization should be included in the RA documentation to guide system architects and developers in its application.

Prove in a pilot

Ideally, RAs are tested in a pilot scenario and retested whenever components or practices are changed. The pilot implementation should be used to test new components or practices before they are broadly recommended. Small organizations may not have the capacity to do this in a formal way and may need to rely on vendor studies, third-party analysis, or small pilot programs to verify technology ...