What is the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture?
Perhaps the biggest challenge facing organizations and those seeking to facilitate systems within them is complexity. And that complexity has two facets:- content and process.
The Zachman Framework focuses on content by defining the views that provide a holistic perspective of the organization. It is a classification scheme for descriptive representations of the enterprise. It takes the form of a five-by-six matrix of cells containing the full range of models describing the activities and functions of organizations.
The horizontal dimension of the matrix is structured into
six columns according to what framework developer John
Zachman calls interrogatives that define the
enterprise: what, how, where, who, when, and why. These
interrogatives can also be defined respectively as data,
function, network, people, time, and motivation.
The vertical dimension is presented in five rows
covering the roles played by different actors within the
enterprise: the planner, owner, designer, builder, and
subcontractor. These actors have corresponding perspectives
that are defined as scope, business model, system model,
technology model, and detailed representations.
The intersection of each row and column forms a
cell containing a specific enterprise artifact. Zachman
contends that a fully architected enterprise would have an
explicit representation that describes the enterprise's
current and future activities related to that cell. He also
maintains that all models in adjacent horizontal and
vertical cells should be consistent with the artifacts in
the cell.
Such a fully described enterprise
would have complete alignment of its business mission to its
systems implementation, and would be completely efficient in
its application of resources, priorities, and processes. Of
course, no such enterprise may exist in practice, but use of
the Zachman framework to analyze existing problems and guide
future plans would lead organizations toward that ideal.
Since its first publication in 1987, the
framework has been applied in Global 2000 organizations such
as General Motors, Bank of America, and Health Canada, among
many others, to structure enterprise architecture programs
and initiatives. The Zachman Framework has also spawned a
number of other similar frameworks for applying enterprise
architecture in specific domains. These include the Federal
Enterprise Architecture Framework (FEAF), The Open Group
Architecture Framework (TOGAF), and the Department of
Defense Architecture Framework (DoDAF).
In
addition to Zachman's own Zachman Institute for Framework
Advancement (ZIFA) organization, whose mission is to further
the conceptual and implementation understanding of
enterprise architecture, a small industry of consultants,
educational services, software companies, and publishers has
sprung up to support the Zachman methodology (see links at
bottom). In November, the EA Interest Group (EAIG) formed to
drive the development and continuous improvement of a common
reference for enterprise architecture based on the Zachman
Framework.
Enterprise Architecture Sites
Fawcette Enterprise Architecture
Software Productivity Consortium
Zachman Framework
The Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA)
TOGAF