Introduction to Zachman

In the space of Enterprise Architecture, Zachman Framework is the veteran being the initial member. It was the brainchild of John Zachman during the year 1987. In the system journal of IBM, he released this technical paper in the name of--A framework for information systems architecture.

By design, Zachman Framework has the logical structure, which is intended to make the comprehensive illustration of an information technology enterprise. In fact, it exhibits the multiple perspectives and categorization of the business artifacts.

Evolution

In 1987, John Zachman published a different approach to the elements of system development. Instead of representing the process as a series of steps, he organized it around the points of view taken by the various players of an enterprise.

Zachman's first paper, titled--A framework for information systems architecture IBM Systems Journal, Volume 26, Number 3, 1987, is cited at http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=33596.

In the history of Enterprise Architecture evolution, the Zachman Framework is the early-bird player, as depicted in the following image:

Core components

On analyzing the history, Zachman originally defined his IT taxonomy using the building domain/industry as an analogy. Interestingly, architectural artifacts are implicitly designed using a two-dimensional matrix in the building domain.

In a subsequent paper with Sowa, Zachman proposed a different strategy of six descriptive namely data, function, network, people, time, and motivation, and six player perspectives, namely planner, owner, designer, builder, subcontractor, and enterprise

J.A. Zachman and J.F. Sowa published the subsequent version titled Extending and Formalizing the Framework for Information Systems Architecture. IBM Systems Journal, Volume 31, Number 3, 1992.

By design, the Zachman Framework is represented in a 6 x 6 matrix, as depicted in the next image. On noticing, the table's column represents the interrogatives of the communication channel, namely What, How, Where, Who, When, and Why. At the same time, the row represents the philosophical concepts of reification, namely scope, model, design, build, and configuration.

The details of the Zachman Framework are clearly drawn in the following diagram:

With the support of the appropriate artifacts in every cell, it is pretty much very simple to depict the sufficient amount of detail. Zachman provided the following rules to assist the reader in understanding the system of the enterprise applications. Fundamentally, it contains six major rules, which are as follows:

1. The columns have no order
2. Each column has a simple, basic model
3. The basic model of each column must be unique
4. Each row represents a distinct perspective
5. Each cell is unique
6. Combining the cells in one row forms a complete model

After 26 years at IBM, John founded Zachman International as a company dedicated to the research and advancement of the state of the art in Enterprise Architecture by his principle. It helps the industry adopt his framework in a massive way, from a scientific perspective.