"The most common method of creating an Architecture is to use a framework to break down and categorize the various parts of the architecture; this approach allows focus on design while retaining the overall context within which the object is being designed" (Zachman). A framework, in general, is a frame (a support system for parts) similar to the skeleton of a body or the chassis of an automobile. It allows focus of independent efforts on parts in the context of the whole.Different parties can build similar systems, repetitively, based on the same framework.
An Enterprise Architecture (EA) framework is the backbone of the EA. The framework does not define EA component architecture, but solely the frame joining them together. It looks like a contents page or a document tree with EA components hooking onto the framework. To provide consistency of design and implementation, the framework enforces reuse of the same components in all artifacts, same interface philosophy, notations and architectural principles.
The EA framework is the meta-architecture of the Enterprise or the Architecture of the Enterprise Architecture. It describes the generic Enterprise structure without defining the architectures of the components. It specifies the generic components of an Enterprise Architecture and their interconnections and navigation. That is why it is so important. Without an agreed EA framework, the outcomes will be wildly different.
What an EA framework should define:
A. The Context: stakeholders, mission, products, vision, Strategy, objectives
B. The structure of the Enterprise: from value chain and business model to business functions
C. The operation of the Enterprise: workflows/processes delivering value to stakeholders
D. The resources operating in functions and processes:
the people executing processes (Organization Architecture) and/or
the technology supporting processes (Technology Architecture)
E. The Enterprise Views delivering specific architectural viewpoints to stakeholders, such as:
Information Architecture
Location, places and buildings where resources are distributed
Enterprise Planning, the roadmap of Enterprise Transformation
Other Stakeholders' Views: Networks, Financial, Compliance architectures
And most importantly, the EA framework must be navigable, from strategy to business function objectives, from inputs to end products, from process to the technology and organization resources executing it. The many mapping matrices demanded by architectural developments such as FEA will be implicitly supplied by such a framework.
In an EA framework without links and navigability, the strategy cannot be aligned to technology and organization, end to end process KPIs cannot be measured, impacts of change cannot be estimated...
More about this in "An Enterprise Architecture Development Framework" book available from Amazon, Trafford.
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