Architecture Frameworks

Zachman Framework is the first and probably most influencing architecture framework. 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 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