The Zachman Framework — named after the man himself, John Zachman is considered to be the pioneer and the first to propose the concept of EA. The framework is one among top 4 and enjoys a good reputation in EA community.
In his own words — “The Zachman Framework is an ontology and is not a methodology. The Framework (ontology) is a STRUCTURE for describing the enterprise whereas a methodology is a PROCESS. A Structure establishes Definition whereas a Process provides Transformation.” (Feeling Enlightened 😃).
WHAT is Zachman Framework?
The simple way to understand Zachman EA Framework is to see it as a matrix/table of rows and columns (6x6) — A standardised classification schema for organising descriptive representations of an enterprise. It is projected that these 6x6= 36 viewpoint covers it all for EA in any organisation.
Although Zachman refrains from using the word TOOL for his framework, but I admire the wide range of opinions and categorisation of framework as -
- A Business Tool — To organise enterprise architecture and model existing business functions and processes.
- A Planning Tool — To position business issues, list all the alternative actions and therefore make informed decisions.
- A Problem-Solving Tool — To simplify business complexity by breaking and isolating it into manageble areas.
How it works?
The rows represent different stakeholder perspectives of an enterprise.
The columns represent different areas of interest within those perspectives.
Representations — Rows — Represents a distinct view of the organisation/product from the perspective of different audiences. The Rows signify transformation aspect and is allocated to each of the following audiences.
- Planner / Contextual View = Scope — Describes Vision, Mission context, constraints and defines the business scope, organisation’s direction, purpose and boundaries for Enterprise architecture efforts.
- Owner / Conceptual View = Enterprise Model — Understands the business model and provides conceptual view of the enterprise. Defines business terms, its structure and processes.
- Builder /Logical View = System’s Model — Develops the system model, Originally the row label was Information System Designer’s view.
- Designer / Physical View = Technology Model — produces the technology model and provides a physical view of the enterprise. Defines how technology will address the enterprise’s needs.
- Integrator / Detailed View — Defines detailed design and presents individual, independent components that can be allocated to contractors for implementation
- User / Actual System View) = Real Functioning System — provides a view of the real operational system that is under consideration from the viewpoint of a user (e.g., an employee, partner or customer).
Descriptions — Columns- Describes the organisation/product with different types, for different purposes, in different ways and can be presented in any order. They represents 6 questions -
- What (Structure/Data) — Whats the business data ? Important data and entities that should be collected, understood and made use of.
- How (Activities/Function) — How does the business work ? Function describe the process of translating the vision of the enterprise into detailed definitions for execution and operations.
- Where (Locations/Network) — Where are the businesses operations? What locations business activities occur ? Data distribution, communication facilities, geographical spread of the business and their interconnections.
- Who (People) — Represents the people within the enterprise, their capabilities and performance, processes, business units and its hierarchy? The column also deals with human-machine interface and interaction between people and their work.
- When (Time) — The time and effects of time on the organisation. Designs schedules, the processing architecture, the control architecture and timing systems.
- Why (Motivation) — Why the processes, people or locations matters ? Business drivers and motivation for framing business goals and strategy.
Zachman sees 3 of the above (Data, Function and Network) as pivotal and the rest of the columns to be secondary in importance.
Not-so-preferred resulting work (Some call it weaknesses) of the Zachman Framework -
- Heavy documentation — Table of 6x6 — Documentation of every cell and its supporting artifacts.
- How much is too much when it comes to streamlining processes — whole lot of scope for going process-heavy.
