Differentiation. Enterprises are complex. Managing the knowledgebase of the Enterprise that is required for Enterprise operation and change is complex. The key to managing complexity is classification. The Zachman Framework is a classification system for descriptive representations that constitute the knowledgebase of Enterprises. However, each Enterprise potentially has four knowledgebases of importance to them: a) knowledge about their Product (if a product is produced); b) knowledge about the Enterprise and services itself; c) knowledge about the Profession, which is likely the indirect or staff, communities that are designing and engineering their Enterprise; and, d) knowledge about the classification of knowledge itself.

Although the classification structure (the Zachman Classification system) is the same, the knowledgebases within the Enterprise are different, but related in a deterministic fashion. The impact of inconsistencies between knowledgebases within an Enterprise is probably amplified exponentially.³ The Framework Standards clearly differentiates the three knowledgebases, the Profession Framework, the Enterprise Framework and the Product Framework but maintains complete conceptual consistency with knowledge classification itself, the Zachman Classification Framework.

Certification. This may be the most pressing reason for publishing Framework Standards at the present time.

As the Information Age becomes more experientially real, the issues of complexity and change become more urgently confrontational for Enterprises which intensifies the demand for Architecture. Humanity for seven thousand years has found no mechanism for accommodating complexity and change other than Architecture. Therefore, there presently is an increasing demand for “certified” Enterprise Architects.⁴ In fact, if Enterprises are seen to fail because they cannot accommodate complexity and change and people are forced out of work and pension funds cannot be sustained, there might even be regulatory action requiring certification of Enterprise Architecture in the process of licensing Enterprises to operate in any particular political jurisdiction, or to meet federal legislation or management behavior controls.

If there are no published standards (criteria against which certification can be measured), certification is purely cosmetic. The concept of certification could be applied not only to Enterprise Architects or to work produced by Enterprise Architects but also to Enterprise Architecture methods and tools. Furthermore, there is also a requirement to establish a standard, ‘public access’ basis for accommodating unique requirements through an elaboration of the base standards as the body of knowledge continues to explode.

Elaboration. The enormous complexity of Enterprises and the vast experience of those people who tend to focus on Enterprise Architecture mandate a capability to accumulate elaborations of the Framework Standards as practitioners’ experience grows.

There has to be a single, authorized facility to publish certified elaborations as well as to publish certified compliance of methods, tools, skills or models to the Zachman Framework Standards. Hopefully this will protect the integrity of the Framework concepts from some of the misperceptions or even distortions of the Framework that derive from maybe well-intentioned, but misinterpreted or misguided self-proclamations of compliance, or even of misunderstanding of basic Framework concepts.

In Conclusion.

The graphic and the meta-model standards overview for the most widely deployed Framework, the Enterprise Framework, will have ‘open Access’ through a personal use license. The graphics for the other three Frameworks with complete meta-model standards for all four Frameworks, along with associated elaborations and certifications, will be available on an subscription access personal use basis for a nominal fee of $120.00 US, renewable annually.

I hope you will find the Zachman Framework Standards of great value to your Enterprise Architecture practice.

Endnotes

1 The instances of Architecture only have to be common in those specific areas of the Enterprise (“slivers” of Framework Cells) in which inter-operation is to be effected but the definition of Enterprise Architecture has to be common throughout.

2 See “The Zachman Framework: A Primer for Enterprise Engineering and Manufacturing” www.ZachmanInternational.com

3 See the comments on Consistency above.

4 Just as you would want certified engineers engineering your building, certified chemists designing your pharmaceuticals, certified accountants designing your chart of accounts, certified mechanics maintaining your Mercedes, etc., etc., etc. … so should you probably want certified Enterprise Architects engineering (designing) your Enterprise.

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