# Common Features of Architecture Frameworks

**In short:** An enterprise architecture framework defines how to create and use an enterprise architecture. Zachman and TOGAF differ in purpose, but TOGAF shows common traits: architecture levels, linked artifacts, and tailoring.

## Explanation

An enterprise architecture framework defines how to create and use an enterprise architecture. Frameworks do this in different ways. The facts here show a few traits worth knowing.

**Different purposes.** Zachman is a classification scheme. It sorts descriptive artifacts, meaning documents and models that describe an enterprise. It is not a process for planning systems or changes to them. Its matrix uses communication interrogatives (question words) as columns. It uses reification transformations as rows.

**Levels of architecture.** TOGAF splits the architecture into levels:

- Business architecture covers strategy, governance, organization, and key business processes.
- Data architecture covers the organization's logical and physical data assets.
- Technology architecture covers hardware, software, and network infrastructure.

See the articles Business Architecture, Data Architecture, and Technology Architecture for details.

**Linked artifacts.** TOGAF 9 added a content metamodel. It links the artifacts of TOGAF together. TOGAF 9 also added an architecture repository and the Enterprise Continuum. See Enterprise Architecture Meta Model for the general idea of a metamodel.

**Tailoring.** An organization may tailor TOGAF to its own needs. Treat a framework as a starting point, not a fixed rulebook.

## Example

A company wants to understand its order handling. One team uses a Zachman-style grid to file each description: a process model, a data model, a network diagram. Another team uses TOGAF and records the same material by level: business, data, technology. The second team then drops the parts of TOGAF it does not need.

## Trade-offs

Tailoring lets a framework fit an organization's needs. The facts here do not say what tailoring costs. A classification scheme such as Zachman tells you where artifacts belong. It does not tell you how to plan change. A framework with more parts, such as a metamodel and repository, gives more structure to maintain.



## Checks

- The document states which enterprise architecture framework is used and whether it was tailored to the organization.
- Business, data, and technology architecture are described as separate levels.
- Artifacts are linked through a content metamodel, with a repository for storing them.

## Related

- [Zachman Framework](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/zachman-framework.md)
- [TOGAF](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/togaf.md)
- [TOGAF Architecture Development Method](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/togaf-architecture-development-method.md)
- [Enterprise Architecture Meta Model](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-meta-model.md)
- [Business Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/business-architecture.md)
- [Data Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/data-architecture/data-architecture.md)
- [Technology Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/technology-architecture.md)
- [Enterprise Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-management.md)

## Sources

- [Enterprise architecture framework - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_architecture_framework) — en.wikipedia.org, accessed 2026-11-09
- [TOGAF - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Group_Architecture_Framework) — en.wikipedia.org, accessed 2026-11-09
- [About the Zachman Framework - Zachman International - FEAC Institute](https://zachman-feac.com/zachman/about-the-zachman-framework) — zachman-feac.com, accessed 2026-11-09