Editing Zachman Framework (section)

==== Example: One-VA Enterprise Architecture ====
The Zachman Framework methodology has for example been used by the [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs]] (VA) to develop and maintain its One-VA Enterprise Architecture in 2001. This methodology required defining all aspects of the VA enterprise from a business process, data, technical, location, personnel, and requirements perspective. The next step in implementing the methodology has been to define all functions related to each business process and identify associated data elements. Once identified, duplication of function and inconsistency in data definition can be identified and resolved.<ref>[http://www.va.gov/oca/testimony/hvac/soi/13mr02it.asp Statement of Dr. John A. Gauss, Assistant Secretary for Information and Technology, Department of Veterans Affairs], before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations Committee on Veterans' Affairs U.S. House of Representatives. March 13, 2002.</ref>

<gallery class="center">
File:Integrated Process Flow for VA IT Projects.jpg|Integrated Process Flow for VA IT Projects (2001)
File:VA Zachman Framework Portal.jpg|VA Zachman Framework Portal
File:VA EA Repository Introduction.jpg|VA EA Repository Introduction (2008)
File:A Tutorial on the Zachman Architecture Framework.jpg|A Tutorial on the Zachman Architecture Framework
</gallery>

The Department of Veterans Affairs at the beginning of the 21st century{{when|date=February 2012}} planned to implement an enterprise architecture fully based on the Zachman Framework. 
* The Zachman Framework was used as a reference model to initiate enterprise architecture planning in 2001.
* Somewhere in between the VA Zachman Framework Portal was constructed.
* This VA Zachman Framework Portal is still in use as a reference model for example in the determination of EA information collected from various business and project source documents.
  
Eventually, an enterprise architecture repository was created at the macro level by the Zachman framework and at a cell level by the meta-model outlined below.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.va.gov/oit/ea/4_3/process/modeling/metamodel.html |title=Meta-Model Cell Details |access-date=25 December 2009}}</ref>

[[File:VA EA Meta-Model Cell Details Enlarged.jpg|thumb|600px|center|VA EA Meta-Model Cell Details Enlarged.]]

This diagram{{efn|This diagram is the exclusive work of Albin Martin Zuech of Annapolis Maryland, who placed it in the public domain in 2001. Al Zuech maintains the original [[Microsoft Visio|Visio]] diagram in numerous stages of its development between 2000 and present. Al Zuech was the Director, Enterprise Architecture Service at the [[United States Department of Veterans Affairs|Department of Veterans Affairs]] from 2001 until 2007.}} has been incorporated within the VA-EA to provide a symbolic representation of the [[Metamodeling|metamodel]] it used, to describe the One-VA Enterprise Architecture and to build an EA Repository without the use of Commercial EA Repository Software. It was developed using an [[object oriented database]] within the Caliber-RM Software Product. Caliber-RM is intended to be used as a [[software configuration management]] tool; not as an EA repository.

However, this tool permitted defining entities and relationships and for defining properties upon both entities and relationships, which made it sufficient for building an EA repository, considering the technology available in early 2003. The personal motivation in selecting this tool was that none of the commercial repository tools then available provided a true Zachman Framework representation, and were highly proprietary, making it difficult to incorporate components from other vendors or from open source.

This diagram emphasizes several important interpretations of the Zachman Framework and its adaptation to information technology [[investment management]]. 
# Progressing through the rows from top to bottom, one can trace-out the [[systems development life cycle]] (SDLC) which is a de facto standard across the Information Industry;
# The diagram emphasizes the importance of the often-neglected Zachman Row-Six (the Integrated, Operational Enterprise View). Representations in Zuech's interpretation of Zachman row-six consist, largely, of measurable service improvements and cost savings/avoidance that result from the business process and technology innovations that were developed across rows two through five.
Row-six provides measured [[return on investment]] for Individual Projects and, potentially, for the entire [[investment portfolio]]. Without row-six the Framework only identifies sunk-cost, but the row-six ROI permits it to measure benefits and to be used in a continuous improvement process, capturing best practices and applying them back through row-two.