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Software Architecture Guide

Common Features of Architecture Frameworks

Explanation

Section titled “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

Section titled “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

Section titled “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

Section titled “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.
Section titled “Related”

Sources

Section titled “Sources”