The Zachman frame work is the corner stones in the discipline of Enterprise Architecture, but as the discipline itself it struggles to demonstrate how it can deliver value to the business.

Please find a presentation of how you can unlock the (Business) value of the Zachman framework as well as your Enterprise Architecture initiatives: The Zachman Framework unlocked @ https://flevy.com/browse/business-document/the-zachman-framework-unlocked-331/ref=mpalmgre

With a degree in chemistry John  most likely inspired by the periodic table regrouped the key questions to ask as we aboard an Enterprise Architecture initiative.

Contextual: 

From a Zachman Business Architecture Perspective we capture:

– THE WHY: Goal List – primary high level organization goals

– THE HOW: Process List – list of all known processes

– THE WHAT: Material List – list of all known organizational entities

– WHO: Organizational Unit & Role List – list of all organization units, sub-units, and identified roles

– WHERE: Geographical Locations List – locations important to organization; can be large and small

– WHEN: Event List – list of triggers and cycles important to organization

Conceptual:

From a Zachman Business Architecture Perspective we capture:

– THE WHY: Goal Relationship Model – identifies hierarchy of goals that support primary goals

– THE HOW: Process Model – provides process descriptions, input processes, output processes

– THE WHAT: Entity Relationship Model – Identifies and describes the organizational materials and their relationships

– WHO: Organizational Unit & Role Relationship Model – identifies enterprise roles and units and the relationships between them

– WHERE: Locations Model – identifies enterprise locations and the relationships between them

– WHEN: Event Model – identifies and describes events and cycles related by time

Logical:

From a Zachman IT Architecture Perspective we capture:

– THE WHY: Rules Diagram – identifies and describes rules that apply constraints to processes and entities without regard to physical or technical implementation

– THE HOW: Process Diagram – identifies and describes process transitions expressed as verb-noun phrases without regard to physical or technical implementation

– THE WHAT: Data Model Diagram – identifies and describes entities and their relationships without regard to physical or technical implementation

– WHO: Role Relationship Diagram – identifies and describes roles and their relations to other roles by types of deliverables without regard to physical or technical implementation

– WHERE: Locations Diagram – identifies and describes locations used to access, manipulate, and transfer entities and processes without regard to physical or technical implementation

– WHEN: Event Diagram – identifies and describes events related to each other in sequence, cycles occur within and between events, without regard to physical or technical implementation

Physical:

From a Zachman IT Architecture Perspective we capture:

– THE WHY: Rules Specification – expressed in a formal language; consists of rule name and structured logic to specify and test rule state

– THE HOW: Process Function Specification – expressed in a technology specific language, hierarchical process elements are related by process calls

– THE WHAT: Data Entity Specification – expressed in a technology specific format; each entity is defined by name, description, and attributes; shows relationships

– WHO: Role Specification – expresses roles performing work and workflow components at the work product detailed specification level

– WHERE: Location Specification – expresses the physical infrastructure components and their connections

– WHEN: Event Specification – expresses transformations of event states of interest to the enterprise

Detailed Representation:

From a Zachman IT Architecture Perspective we capture:

– THE WHY: Rules detail

– THE HOW: Process detail

– THE WHAT: Data detail

– WHO: Role detail

– WHERE: Location detail

– WHEN: Event detail

Please find a presentation of how you can unlock the (Business) value of the Zachman framework as well as your Enterprise Architecture initiatives: The Zachman Framework unlocked @ https://flevy.com/browse/business-document/the-zachman-framework-unlocked-331/ref=mpalmgre

Full article @ https://deliverbusinessvaluewithit.com/2013/09/15/zachman-unlocked/