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This book is being written from the perspective of someone who already understands the value of and is already committed to the concept on Enterprise Architecture. I am not trying to convince someone that they should do Enterprise Architecture. I am defining the logic of a Framework, a Framework for Enterprise Architecture, which is an analytical tool to help one think about an extremely complex object, the modern Enterprise. Enterprises are so complex and are changing so rapidly, it would be impossible to think about them holistically without a classification scheme that enabled analysis of one variable at a time without losing sense of the Enterprise as a whole.

As the characteristics of the Information Age unfold, the prognostications in Alvin Toffler's trilogy on change are being fulfilled. Clearly, the rate of change continues to escalate beyond comprehension. ¹⁰¹ Clearly, the game has changed, as there are abundant evidences of revolution about us every moment. ¹⁰² And clearly, as everyone has access to the same information at the same time, the powershift from the center to the periphery, from the supplier to the consumer is happening. ¹⁰³

Clearly, business is no longer as simple as, get yourself a good product or service and then go find a bunch of people to sell it to. The new idea is, get yourself a good customer and then figure out the range of products and services required to keep that customer a good customer. Seeing the Enterprise as a contiguous thing in its own right from the perspective of the customer ¹⁰⁴ is a radical new idea and infinitely more complex than historically, the Enterprise seeing the customers (market) as a contiguous thing.

As we stand back and observe the Information Age, the rate of change continues to escalate dramatically, complexity continues to escalate and the game has changed!

It is imperative to see the Enterprise as a contiguous, holistic thing in its own right if it is to be optimized for participation in this new game. There is no longer any room for dissipation of energy and resources through internal competition and indiscriminate sub-optimization. The Enterprise must be carefully conceived and structured to be flexible, adaptable, dynamic, and responsive.

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.

I am confident that the Framework for Enterprise Architecture is timeless. Not only can you find the identical logical structure for ordering (providing order for) the design artifacts of physical objects like airplanes, buildings, locomotives, etc., but the classification schemes for each axis of the Framework grew up quite independently from my employment of them in the Framework. Who, what, where, when, why, how; and scope, owner, designer, builder, detail both grew up quite independently of and thousands of years before the Framework for Enterprise Architecture. And ... I am confident that neither classification is going to go away. They are natural classifications that have been employed by humanity for hundreds and thousands of years and I am sure will continue to be employed for hundreds and thousands more.

The Framework for Enterprise Architecture is a natural, normalized classification scheme and that is what makes it a useful analytical tool. It is describing the set of primitive descriptive representations (models) relevant for describing an object, any object. Although I learned about the Framework from observing the descriptive representations of airplanes and buildings, etc. (physical objects), I am interested in Enterprises and therefore, I have named the primitive models with Enterprise names.

I hope you enjoy the underlying logic that supports these points.

© Copyright 2001-2006 John A. Zachman, Zachman International, Zachman Framework Associates, Metadata Systems Software Inc. All rights reserved.

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