Zachman Framework

See http://www.zifa.com/

Overview

In 1987, John Zachman, author of the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture, wrote "To keep the business from disintegrating, the concept of information systems architecture is becoming less of an option and more of a necessity." From that assertion over 15 years ago, the Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture has evolved and become the model around which major organizations view and communicate their enterprise information infrastructure. The Zachman Framework draws upon the discipline of classical architecture to establish a common vocabulary and set of perspectives, a framework, for defining and describing today's complex enterprise systems. Enterprise Architecture provides the blueprint, or architecture, for the organization's information infrastructure.

Framework Quickstart

There are two critical, distinctly different challenges facing the modern Enterprise as it emerges into the Twenty-first Century Information Age. These challenges affect its ability to operate effectively and dynamically respond to the ever-increasing rates of change in the competitive marketplace and regulatory environment. The Enterprise must:

1. Begin making descriptive representations (models) of the Enterprise explicit. This entails populating various cells of the Zachman Framework with instances of models, for example, defining specific models for the Enterprise, with the intent of producing system implementations that more accurately reflect the intent of the enterprise, and of retaining the models to serve as a base-line for managing Enterprise change.
2. Formalize and enhance the Enterprise Architecture process. Initially, this would entail defining for the Enterprise, for example, the generic components (contents) of each of the cells of the Framework, that is, defining what is important to capture in each cell when building instances of models for that enterprise. This would enable formalizing the management system (plans and controls) for building the Enterprise models, for evaluating and deploying development methodologies and tools, for selecting and/or defining databases (repositories) for storing the Enterprise models, for defining the roles, responsibilities and skills required within the architecture process, etc.

These two challenges go hand in hand. The Enterprise must produce the models in order to deliver systems implementations in the short term, and at the same time for the long term, instantiate the Architecture process in order to ensure on-going coherence of system implementations and to build an Enterprise environment conducive to accommodating high rates of change. The contents of some of the cells are well understood in the industry today. In fact, it is easy to buy, off the shelf, application development tools and methodologies that support building the models shaded in Figure 1.

Pinnacle Business Group (and its predecessor companies) invested over 15 years in developing a robust methodology including tool support for doing the architecture planning (Row 1), business process engineering (Row 2) and application development (Rows 3, 4 and 5) as shown in Figure 2.

Although many Enterprises have been building information systems for many years, in general, few of them have actually understood enterprise models. That is, they have not understood the contents of the Framework cells (and therefore have not understood their methodologies and tools), and neither have they had a disciplined architecture process in place. Therefore, there has been little cohesion in the resultant system implementations, regardless of how valid or robust the methodologies and tools, plus the systems have provided little lasting value as the Enterprises have changed over time. The Pinnacle Business Group and the Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA), can be engaged in these two Architecture programs to address the demand for immediate implementations as well as the requirement to establish an on-going architecture process. These programs, in brief, are as follows:

Architecture Program 1 - Enterprise Architecture Process Instantiation

This program would concentrate on defining appropriate contents of all the Framework cells for the Enterprise for the purpose of developing an Enterprise Architecture strategy which would include: identifying the cells (models) in which to invest resources, skill/method/tool requirements, repository strategy, approach for maintaining continuity (integration) while building incrementally, sources of funding, roles and responsibilities, etc. (See Figure 5)

Architecture Program 2 - Enterprise Architecture Quick Start

This program would focus on developing the Row 1 cells for the Enterprise, evaluating the current systems environment and determining the Enterprise priorities, in order to establish a context and to develop an implementation plan to deliver quick results. The plan could be expected to lead to validating any existing Enterprise models, developing systems programs, doing appropriate, additional "Business Process Engineering," and subsequently building systems implementations consistent with Enterprise priorities. (See Figure 4)

The Zachman Framework

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-- KevinJarnot - 25 Jan 2005

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