The Zachman Framework

Online Tutorial in PowerPoint

In September 1987, John Zachman published an important article in the IBM Systems Journal identifying what he called "A Framework for Information Systems Architecture," sometimes simply referred to as "The Zachman Framework." This article has grown to become a de facto standard for enterprise architecture development. In fact, the Zachman Framework provides much of the foundation for the FEAF and the frameworks of several Federal Departments and Agencies.

Two key ideas are illustrated in the Zachman Framework:

1. There is a set of architectural representations produced over the process of building a complex engineering product representing the different perspectives of the different participants.
2. The same product can be described, for different purposes, in different ways, resulting in different types of descriptions.

The Zachman Framework provides the necessary detailed and robust views of the enterprise information architecture. It outlines six increasingly detailed views or levels of abstraction for six architecture descriptions. The levels of abstractions are:

1. The Planner or Ballpark View
2. The Owner's or Enterprise Model View
3. The Designer's or Systems Model View
4. The Builder's or Technology Model View
5. The Subcontractor's or Detailed Representation View
6. The Functioning Enterprise or Actual System View.

And the six architecture descriptions-and the interrogatives that they answer-are:

1. The Data/Thing Description - What
2. The Function Description - How
3. The Network Description - Where
4. The People Description - Who
5. The Time Description - When
6. The Motivation Description - Why.

In Zachman's opinion, the single factor that makes his framework unique is that each element on either axis of the matrix is explicitly distinguishable from all other elements on that axis. The representations in each cell of the matrix are not merely successive levels of increasing detail, but actually are different representations-different in context, meaning, motivation, and use. Because each of the elements on either axis is explicitly different from the others, it is possible to define precisely what belongs in each cell.

This figure illustrates the Zachman Framework in a 6x6 matrix format. The six views or levels of abstraction are the rows of the matrix, while the architectural descriptions-the answers to the enterprise interrogatives-are the columns. Each of the 36 cells of the matrix represents a descriptive model or architecture product that form the building blocks of the EA.

For further readings and more detailed information on the Zachman Framework, please refer to any of John Zachman's publications, the Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA) web site (http://www.zifa.com), and a number of publications by other authors such as Melissa A. Cook 's text, Building Enterprise Information Architectures: Reengineering Information Systems, Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ, 1996.

A Framework for Information Systems Architecture, by John Zachman, IBM Systems Journal, VOL26, NO 3, 1987; © 1987, 1999

The Zachman Model 800x600 pixels in PNG format.

A Practical Guide to Federal Enterprise Architecture, Chief Information Officer Council, Version 1.0, February 2001 and a local copy

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