Editing Zachman Framework (section)

== Overview ==
The Zachman Framework has evolved in its thirty-year history to include:
* The initial framework, named ''A Framework for Information Systems Architecture'', by John Zachman published in a 1987 article in the IBM Systems journal.<ref name="ZF1987">{{cite web|url=http://zachman.com/images/ZI_PIcs/ibmsj2603e.pdf|title=A framework for information systems architecture| publisher=IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 26. No. 3|year=1987}}</ref>
* The ''Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architecture'', an update of the 1987 original in the 1990s extended and renamed.<ref name="TOG06">The Open Group (1999–2006). [https://pubs.opengroup.org/architecture/togaf8-doc/arch/chap39.html "ADM and the Zachman Framework"] in: ''TOGAF 8.1.1 Online''. Accessed 31 July 2024.</ref>
* One of the later versions of the Zachman Framework, offered by Zachman International as industry standard.

[[File:Zachman Frameworks Collage.jpg|thumb|320px|Collage of Zachman Frameworks as presented in several books on Enterprise Architecture from 1997 to 2005.]]
In other sources, this framework is explained as, for example:  
* a [[Software framework|framework]] to organize and analyze [[data]],<ref>{{cite book |first1=William H. |last1=Inmon |author-link1=William H. Inmon |first2=John A. |last2=Zachman |author-link2=John Zachman   |first3=Jonathan G. |last3=Geiger |date=1997 |title=Data Stores, Data Warehousing, and the Zachman Framework: Managing Enterprise Knowledge |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=0-07-031429-2}}</ref>
* a framework for enterprise architecture.<ref>Pete Sawyer, Barbara Paech, Patrick Heymans (2007). ''Requirements Engineering: Foundation for Software Quality''. page 191.</ref>
* a [[Classification (machine learning)|classification]] system, or classification scheme.<ref>Kathleen B. Hass (2007). ''The Business Analyst as Strategist: Translating Business Strategies Into Valuable Solutions''. page 58.</ref>
* a matrix, often in a 6x6 matrix format
* a two-dimensional [[scientific modelling|model]]<ref>Harold F. Tipton, Micki Krause (2008). ''Information Security Management Handbook, Sixth Edition, Volume 2''. page 263.</ref> or an analytic model.
* a two-dimensional schema, used to organize the detailed representations of the enterprise.<ref>O'Rourke, Fishman, Selkow (2003). ''Enterprise Architecture Using the Zachman Framework''. page 9.</ref>
In addition to John Zachman's original frameworks, various extensions and applications have emerged, often referred to as Zachman Frameworks, though they typically serve as graphical overlays atop the core framework.
 
The Zachman Framework organizes key [[Perspective (cognitive)|perspective]]s of [[enterprise architecture]] into a two-dimensional matrix. The rows represent different [[stakeholder (corporate)|stakeholder]] types, while the columns outline various architectural aspects. It does not provide a specific [[methodology]] for architecture development. Instead, the matrix serves as a template to be populated with the organization's unique goals, rules, processes, materials, roles, locations, and events. Mapping relationships between columns helps identify gaps in the organization's documented state.<ref name="GASLSJ03">James McGovern et al. (2003). ''A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture''. p. 127-129.</ref>

The framework is a logical structure for classifying and organizing the descriptive [[representations]] of an enterprise. It is significant to both the [[management]] of the enterprise, and the actors involved in the development of enterprise systems.<ref name="Lank05">[[Marc Lankhorst]] et al. (2005). ''Enterprise Architecture at Work''. p. 24.</ref> While there is no order of priority for the columns of the Framework, the top-down order of the rows is significant to the alignment of business concepts and the actual physical enterprise. The level of detail in the Framework is a function of each cell (and not the rows). When done by IT the lower level of focus is on [[information technology]], however it can apply equally to physical material (ball valves, piping, transformers, fuse boxes for example) and the associated physical processes, roles, locations etc. related to those items.{{Citation needed|date=May 2014}}