Principles are general rules and guidelines, intended to be enduring and seldom amended, that inform and support the way in which an organisation sets about fulfilling its mission. Architecture principles, more specifically, are a set of principles that relate to architecture work. They govern the architecture process, affecting the development, maintenance and use of the enterprise architecture.

TOGAF defines an architectural principle as, "a fundamental statement of belief which guides the future direction of the architecture and supports the decision-making process."

We develop architecture principles to define general rules and guidelines for the use and deployment of all IT resources and assets across the enterprise. They reflect a level of consensus among the various elements of the enterprise, and form the basis for making future IT decisions. In order to guide decision making, architecture principles must be clearly traceable and clearly articulated. They were chosen so as to ensure alignment of the architecture and implementation of the Target Architecture with business strategies and visions.

N.B. Principles are subject to Governance approval.