Zachman Framework - Overview

Overview

The term "Zachman Framework" has multiple meanings. It can refer to any of the frameworks proposed by John Zachman:

• The initial framework, named A Framework for Information Systems Architecture, by John Zachman published in an 1987 article in the IBM Systems journal.
• The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture, an update of the 1987 original in the 1990s extended and renamed .
• One of the later versions of the Zachman Framework, offered by Zachman International as industry standard.

In other sources the Zachman Framework is introduced as a framework, originated by and named after John Zachman, represented in numerous ways, see image. This framework is explained as, for example:

• a framework to organize and analyze data,
• a framework for enterprise architecture.
• a classification system, or classification scheme
• a matrix, often in a 6x6 matrix format
• a two-dimensional model or an analytic model.
• a two-dimensional schema, used to organize the detailed representations of the enterprise.

Beside the frameworks developed by John Zachman numerous extensions and or applications have been developed, which are also sometimes called Zachman Frameworks.

The Zachman Framework summarizes a collection of perspectives involved in enterprise architecture. These perspectives are represented in a two-dimensional matrix that defines along the rows the type of stakeholders and with the columns the aspects of the architecture. The framework does not define a methodology for an architecture. Rather, the matrix is a template that must be filled in by the goals/rules, processes, material, roles, locations, and events specifically required by the organization. Further modeling by mapping between columns in the framework identifies gaps in the documented state of the organization.

The framework is a simple and logical structure for classifying and organizing the descriptive representations of an enterprise. It is significant to both the management of the enterprise, and the actors involved in the development of enterprise systems. While there is no order of priority for the columns of the Framework, the top-down order of the rows is significant to the alignment of business concepts and the actual physical enterprise. The level of detail in the Framework is a function of each cell (and not the rows). When done by IT the lower level of focus is on information technology, however it can apply equally to physical material (ball valves, piping, transformers, fuse boxes for example) and the associated physical processes, roles, locations etc. related to those items.