# Enterprise Architecture and Frameworks > Enterprise architecture, architecture frameworks (Zachman, TOGAF, ...), the framework landscape, how software architecture fits into enterprise architecture. ## Enterprise architecture fundamentals, maturity and strategy - [Enterprise Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-management.md): Enterprise architecture (EA) guides how an organization changes toward its business vision. It looks across many applications at once. Its goals are efficiency, lower cost and risk, and better alignment of business and IT. - [Enterprise Architecture (Ross/Weill/Robertson definition)](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-ross-weill-robertson-definition.md): Enterprise architecture is the organizing logic for business processes and IT infrastructure. It follows from the company's operating model: how far its processes are integrated and standardized. - [Enterprise Architecture Layers](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-structure-business-and-it-architecture.md): Enterprise architecture describes an organization in layers: business, data, application and technology. Higher layers use services of lower layers, and lower layers realize higher-layer elements. This lets you trace a business need down to its technical basis. - [Enterprise Architecture Maturity Level](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-maturity-levels.md): An enterprise architecture maturity level shows how well the architecture function has developed. Judge it by the value the organization gains, and set a target that fits the organization's size and complexity. - [Enterprise Architecture Maturity Stages](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-maturity-stages.md): Enterprise architecture maturity stages describe how a firm's architecture grows from business silos to standardized technology, optimized core, and business modularity, later extended to a digital ecosystem. Value depends on governance and learning, not stage alone. - [Enterprise Architecture Meta Model](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-meta-model.md): An enterprise architecture meta model is a shared set of entity types and relationships for describing an organization. The TOGAF content metamodel is a key example. Teams also use it to configure EA tools and repositories. - [Enterprise Architecture Strategy](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/enterprise-architecture-strategy.md): An enterprise architecture strategy describes how an organization steers ongoing change. It starts from the current architecture, defines the desired future one, and helps architects guide others' choices as business strategy shifts. - [Foundation for Execution](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/foundation-for-execution.md): A foundation for execution is the automated, digitized core of a company: IT infrastructure plus digitized business processes. It rests on an operating model, an enterprise architecture and an IT engagement model, and grows through ongoing projects. - [Gartner Hype Cycle for Enterprise Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/gartner-hype-cycle-for-enterprise-architecture.md): Gartner's Hype Cycle for Enterprise Architecture places topics in phases of rising and falling expectations. Editions show topics rising, falling and maturing. Teams can use it as one input for timing investments. - [Operating Model](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/operating-model.md): An operating model describes how a company delivers value. It sets the needed level of process standardization and integration, and that level tells architects which process and IT capabilities matter most. - [Relationship between Enterprise Architecture and Application Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/relationship-between-enterprise-architecture-and-application-architecture.md): Enterprise architecture sets organization-wide constraints that limit application architects' choices. Influence also runs back: application decisions affect enterprise architecture. Concerns spanning several applications need a clear split of responsibility. - [Stakeholder Readiness for Change Assessment](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/stakeholder-readiness-for-change-assessment.md): A readiness assessment rates each stakeholder's understanding and commitment today against what the architecture work needs. The gap between the two levels shows where to focus effort. - [Warning Signs of Poor Enterprise Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/warning-signs-of-poor-enterprise-architecture.md): Poor enterprise architecture shows up as duplicated capabilities, little reuse, fragile system connections, and workarounds. Typical causes are rewarded local optimization and no shared inventory of capabilities. ## Frameworks: TOGAF and Zachman - [Common Features of Architecture Frameworks](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/common-features-of-architecture-frameworks.md): 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. - [TOGAF](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/togaf.md): TOGAF is an enterprise architecture framework first presented in 1995, based mainly on a US Department of Defense framework. Its core is the Architecture Development Method, supported by a content framework, a continuum and reference models. - [TOGAF Architecture Development Method](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/togaf-architecture-development-method.md): The TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM) is a cyclic, repeatable method for developing an enterprise architecture. An organization can tailor it, move between phases, and adapt it to agile work with sprints. - [Zachman Framework](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/zachman-framework.md): The Zachman Framework is a grid that sorts the descriptions of an enterprise. It is a structure, not a process. Each cell holds one kind of description for one audience. ## Business architecture and capabilities - [Business Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/business-architecture.md): Business architecture is a blueprint of an organization that gives everyone a common understanding of it. It is one of four enterprise architecture domains and centers on capabilities, value streams, information and organizational structure. - [Business Architecture Artifact](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/business-architecture-artifacts.md): Business architecture artifacts are maps and catalogues that describe an organization from the business side, such as strategy, capabilities, processes and customer journeys. They link strategy to the applications that support it. - [Business Capability](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/business-capability.md): A business capability is an ability an organization has to reach a specific purpose or outcome. It describes what the business can do, not how the work is done. Capabilities form levels of detail. - [Business Capability Map](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/business-capability-map.md): A business capability map lists what a business must be able to do, in a few levels, without saying how or by whom. It stays stable for years while processes, systems and teams change. - [Capability Heat Map](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/capability-heat-map.md): A capability heat map colors a map of business capabilities by assessment scores, such as maturity or strategic importance. It shows where to act and supports decisions about roadmaps. - [Capability identification and naming](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/capability-identification-and-naming.md): A business capability says what a business does, not how it does it. Identify capabilities that stay stable over time, and name them with nouns or gerunds, not verbs. - [Capability Map Development Method](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/capability-map-development-method.md): Build a capability map in steps: set its purpose, keep it shallow, name owners, and describe what the business does rather than how. Capabilities should not overlap and should stay stable for years. - [Capability Map Use Cases](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/capability-map-use-cases.md): A capability map shows what a business does. Teams use it to plan strategy, find gaps and overlaps, set investment priorities, and decide where to focus resources and projects. - [Capability versus process](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/capability-versus-process.md): A capability says what an organization can do. A process says how the work gets done, step by step. Keep the two apart and link them, because capabilities stay stable while processes change. - [Operational Value Stream](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/operational-value-stream.md): An operational value stream is a high-level, end-to-end set of stages. It starts when a stakeholder has a need and ends when that need is met. It shows how an organization delivers a product or service to a customer. - [Strategy Map](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/strategy-map.md): A strategy map is a one-page diagram of roughly 12–20 strategic objectives in four perspectives. Arrows show how lower objectives are expected to drive higher ones. Each arrow is a hypothesis to test. ## Application, data and technology architecture - [Application Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/application-architecture.md): Application architecture is the enterprise-level view of which applications an organization uses and how they relate. It stays logical and does not cover the internal design of any single application. - [Application Architecture Artifacts](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/application-architecture-artifacts.md): Application architecture artifacts document an enterprise's application layer. A catalog lists the applications. Interface, interaction, technology and migration views add connections, platforms and change over time. - [Application Interface Diagram](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/application-interface-diagram.md): An application interface diagram shows how an organization's applications connect to each other. Each connection is labeled with its technology, such as REST or FTP. This makes integration dependencies visible. - [Application Landscape Evolution Drivers](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/patterns-for-the-evolution-of-application-landscapes.md): Application landscape evolution drivers are the business and IT goals that push a company to change its applications. Typical drivers are cost, agility, resilience and AI. They guide choices such as retire, replace, rehost or refactor. - [Application Lifecycle Diagram](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/application-lifecycle-diagram.md): An application lifecycle diagram is a Gantt chart that shows when each application is planned to start and stop supporting the business. It helps teams spot retirement and replacement needs early. - [Data Architecture Artifact](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/data-architecture-artifacts.md): Data architecture artifacts are the catalogs, matrices and diagrams that document an organization's data. Each one answers a different question: what data exists, who uses it, how it relates, and where the master copy lives. - [Data Architecture Inputs](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/data-architecture-inputs.md): Data architecture inputs are the materials TOGAF's Phase C gathers before designing the target data architecture. The facts here name the project scope document, reference materials, and data principles. - [Data Architecture Principle](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/data-architecture-principle.md): A data architecture principle is a short, high-level rule for how an organization treats its data. Typical examples: data is shared, accessible, and secure, and each data element has an accountable trustee. - [Data Entity/Business Function Matrix](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/data-entity-business-function-matrix.md): A Data Entity/Business Function Matrix links data entities to business functions. Each cell uses CRUD codes (create, read, update, delete) to show how a function uses an entity. It helps spot unclear ownership. - [Data Entity/Data Component Catalog](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/data-entity-data-component-catalog.md): A data entity catalog is a master list of an organization's data entities. Each entry records the entity's definition, owner, classification and system of record, so teams share one view of the data. - [IT Component Catalogue](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/it-component-catalogue.md): An IT component catalogue lists the technology components a company uses and gives each a status. Linking components to applications shows which to keep, approve, or retire. - [Technology Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/technology-architecture.md): Technology architecture describes the infrastructure a system runs on and the standards for choosing and operating it. It covers hosting options such as on-premises, cloud and hybrid, and it feeds the arc42 deployment view. - [TOGAF Phase C: Application Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/togaf-phase-c-application-architecture.md): Application Architecture in TOGAF Phase C designs the target applications that support the business architecture and vision. It compares today's applications with the target and turns the gaps into roadmap components.