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| Enterprise Architecture FAQs |
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What is Enterprise Architecture and why do we do it?"Architecture is a set of descriptive representations that are relevant for describing something you intend to create and that constitute the baseline for changing an instance of that thing once you have created it. Therefore, Enterprise Architecture is the set of descriptive representations relevant for describing an Enterprise and that constitutes the baseline for changing the Enterprise once it is created." - John Zachman, taken from interview with Roger Sessions, Editor-in-Chief: Perspectives of the International Association of Software Architects "If you get really honest and search all of history, seven thousand years of known history of humankind, to find how humanity has learned to cope with two things, complexity and change ... there is one game in town, ARCHITECTURE. If it (whatever it is) gets so complex you can't remember everything all at one time, you have to write it down... ARCHITECTURE. Then, if you want to change it (whatever it is), you go to what you wrote down... ARCHITECTURE. How do you think they build hundred story buildings, or Boeing 747's, or IBM supercomputers... or even simple things like a one-bedroom house or a Piper Cub or the PC on your desk? Somebody had to write it down... at excruciating levels of detail... ARCHITECTURE. Now, if you want to change any of those things (with minimum time, disruption and cost), how do you change them? You go to what you wrote down... ARCHITECTURE. The key to complexity and change is ARCHITECTURE. In the Industrial Age, we had to learn what architecture was relative to physical objects (products) in order to deal with product complexity and product change. In the Information Age, it is the Enterprise that is complex and changing and therefore, now we are having to learn what architecture is relative to the Enterprise ... Enterprise Architecture. This is what is making the Framework for Enterprise Architecture so significant in the Enterprise community as we move into the Information Age. The Framework is putting some definition around Enterprise Architecture." -John Zachman How can I learn more about Enterprise Architecture?
How can I learn more about The Zachman Framework™?Part of the Zachman International's mission is to further understanding and to educate professionals concerning The Zachman Framework™. John Zachman has developed many resources to this end. We recommend you start with the following:
Do I have to build models in order to do Enterprise Architecture?Enterprise Architecture is all about PHYSICS. Nothing magic is going to happen and you can’t create something out of nothing… no matter whether you want to hear this truth or not. Why is Rapid Application Development really Implementation and NOT Architecture?Usually, by its very name, a "rapid application development"- style methodology’s Enterprise engineering design objective is "IMPLEMENT" as soon as possible. The engineering design objective for rapid application development-style methodologies is NOT Alignment, NOT Integration, NOT Flexibility, NOT Interoperability, NOT Reduced Time-to-Market, NOT Quality, NOT Security, etc. Those Enterprise engineering design objectives actually require ENGINEERING. Engineering requires PRIMITIVE MODELS, the "raw material" for engineering. Primitive Models are "analysis/paralysis" relative to rapid implementations… UNLESS, you already have the Primitive Models in inventory, in which case, implementations are virtually instantaneous, a click of a mouse, ASSEMBLE TO ORDER… BUT, the investment has to be made in the Primitive Models BEFORE you get the order for the implementation. So, if you want the short-term approach, that is, to get to implementation as soon as possible, forget about models, write the code. Build more legacy. What happened to ZIFA?ZIFA (The Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement) was an informal collaboration between John Zachman of Zachman International, and Sam Holcman of Pinnacle Business Group. It was initially intended to be a vehicle for research on The Zachman Framework™, however no Framework research was ever conducted under ZIFA. An annual conference, the ZIFA Forum, was held from 1996 thru 2004 and Enterprise Architecture Seminars have been conducted under the ZIFA name until the present with one and a half days of Framework Concepts by John Zachman and one and a half days of Sam Holcman’s Enterprise Architecture Planning Methodology. All Framework research has been conducted under the auspices of Zachman International and Sam Holcman has created a new venture, the EA Center of Excellence (EACOE) which presumably is intended to market and train in the Holcman planning methodology. John A. Zachman was neither consulted about nor invited to participate in the EACOE and therefore, that new venture is completely independent of and disassociated with John A. Zachman and The Zachman Framework™. There is no continuing purpose for the Zachman Institute for Framework Advancement (ZIFA). Mr. Holcman has recommended and Mr. Zachman has agreed to dissolve ZIFA, year end 2008. What is the real scoop with consulting companies who claim to "implement The Zachman Framework™?""There are NO consulting companies, ZERO, that I know of that actually 'implement The Zachman Framework™'. In fact, The Zachman Framework™ is not implementable… it is not an implementation. It is an ontology. Someone could build, store and reuse components of the Framework Primitive models to create engineered, Enterprise implementations, however no organization has ever petitioned Zachman International to confirm that their methodological use of The Zachman Framework is certified as compliant or that their Architecture work products are certified as conforming to the metamodel of one or more cells of The Zachman Framework™. If any person or company claims to do something with, or know something about The Zachman Framework™, and their name is not listed on the Zachman International Certification page as having some degree of certification or authorization, then I would have to question the veracity of their claim and whether or not they actually know anything about the fundamental concepts embodied in The Zachman Framework™." - John A. Zachman How do you "cost-justify" Enterprise Architecture? Technically, you can't cost-justify Enterprise Architecture because Enterprise Architecture is NOT an expense... it is an asset. Cost-justification is an expense-based concept that has to do with saving money in the current accounting period. In contrast, return on investment (ROI) is an asset-based concept that has to do with deriving value in multiple, future accounting periods through reusing an asset in which an investment was made. Enterprise Architecture does not save money in the current accounting period. Enterprise Architecture requires an investment which can be reused to derive value (potentially, a LOT of value – assuming it is engineered effectively) in multiple future accounting periods.
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