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In 1987, John Zachman, 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 then on, the EA Framework of Zachman has evolved and became the model
around which many major organizations view and communicate their
enterprise information infrastructure. It provides a blueprint, or
architecture, for the organization’s current and future information infrastructure.
Zachman's EA at
the time presented a new model for viewing
and communicating information infrastructures.
Instead of
representing the process as a series of steps, he organized it around
the points of view (perspectives) taken by the various players. These players included:
- Someone who has undertaken to do business in a particular industry
- The business people who run the organization
- The systems
analyst who wants to represent the business in a disciplined form
- The designer, who applies specific technologies to solve the problems of
the business
- The builder of the system, and finally
- The system
itself.
These perspectives are represented as rows in the matrix.
Zachman also acknowledged that each of the participants was looking at the
same categories of information. The columns in the framework represent the data manipulated by
an organization (what), its functions and processes (how), locations
where business is conducted (where), events that trigger business
activities (when), the people and organizations involved (who), and the
motivations and constraints which determine how the business behaves
(why).
EA Terminology
- An “Enterprise” is a business
association consisting of a recognized set of interacting business
functions, able to operate as an independent, standalone entity. With
this definition, there can be enterprises within enterprises. For
instance, a business unit within the overall corporate entity may be
considered an enterprise as long as it could be operated independently.
The enterprise can also be seen as the “extended” enterprise, meaning
that the scope of the impact of an enterprise architecture effort could
also include inter-relationships to external entities such as suppliers,
business partners, and customers.
- “Architecture” provides the underlying framework, which defines and
describes the platform required by the enterprise to attain its
objectives and achieve its business vision. It can be defined as the set of principles, guidelines,
policies, models, standards, and processes that, aligned to business
strategy and information requirements, guides the selection, creation
and implementation of solutions that are aligned with future business
direction.
| |
Data (What) |
Function (How) |
Network (Where) |
People (Who) |
Time (When) |
Motivation
(Why) |
|
Objectives /
Scope |
List of things
important to the enterprise |
List of processes
the enterprise performs |
List of locations
where the enterprise operates |
List of
organizational units |
List of business
events / cycles |
List of business
goals / strategies |
|
Model of the
Business |
Entity
relationship diagram (including m:m, n-ary, attributed
relationships) |
Business process
model (physical data flow diagram) |
Logistics network
(nodes and links) |
Organization
chart, with roles; skill sets; security issues. |
Business master
schedule |
Business plan |
|
Model of the
Information System |
Data model
(converged entities, fully normalized) |
Essential Data
flow diagram; application architecture |
Distributed system
architecture |
Human interface
architecture (roles, data, access) |
Dependency
diagram, entity life history (process structure) |
Business rule
model |
|
Technology
Model |
Data architecture
(tables and columns); map to legacy data |
System design:
structure chart, pseudo-code |
System
architecture (hardware, software types) |
User interface
(how the system will behave); security design |
"Control flow"
diagram (control structure) |
Business rule
design |
|
Detailed
Representation |
Data design (denormalized),
physical storage design |
Detailed Program
Design |
Network
architecture |
Screens, security
architecture (who can see what?) |
Timing definitions
|
Rule specification
in program logic |
|
Function System |
Converted data |
Executable
programs |
Communications
facilities |
Trained people |
Business events |
Enforced rules |
Compare with Zachman's Enterprise Architecture:
Balanced Scorecard |
Activity Based Costing |
Modeling
More management models
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