Background: John Bachman worked with IBM for 26 years and contributed to IBM’s Business Systems Planning program. During his tenure with IBM, he derived his own version of enterprise architecture based on ideas from classical architecture and aircraft manufacturing. His approach to architecture is called Zachman framework for Information systems architecture (ISA). The first version of the framework was released in 1987 and has been revised multiple times after that. The framework draws on Zachman’s experience of how business processes are managed in complex products and requires as engineered approach to development and modification.
The framework allows one to view how a same product can be described in multiple different ways by different participants depending on their perspective of product’s purpose. Zachman framework shows how different perspective exists and how they can fit together. Its more of a taxonomy than a framework. The easiest way to understand the Zachman Enterprise architecture framework is to view it as a classification scheme represented visually as a table or matrix, with 30 boxes or cells organized in to six columns. Each cell represents a unique mode and can be described using its own technique such as flowchart, entity -relationships diagram. The framework basically explains how cells in different columns and rows related to each other. Conceptual graphs are used to formally define the logical relationships between different cells. The decomposition into cells makes it easier to apply subject matter to each cell. Each row represents a distinctive from the perspective of different participants. Each column represents the questions that are asked to each participants. The framework comes with 7 rules that will help the person working with this framework to get a better understanding of how it should be used. It should be kept in mind that