Enterprise Architecture framework

An Enterprise Architecture Framework (or "EA Framework" for short) defines how to organize the structure and views associated with an Enterprise Architecture. Because the discipline of Enterprise Architecture is so broad, and because enterprises can be large and complex, the models associated with the discipline also tend to be large and complex. To manage this scale and complexity, an Architecture Framework provides tools and methods that can bring the task into focus and allow valuable artifacts to be produced when they are most needed.

Usage

Architecture Frameworks are commonly used in IT/IS governance. An organization may wish to mandate that certain models be produced before a system design can be approved. Similarly, they may wish to specify certain views be used in the documentation of procured systems - the U.S. Department of Defense stipulates that specific DoDAF views be provided by equipment suppliers for capital project above a certain value.

History

The first documented implementation of an EA framework was developed by the Partnership for Research in Information Systems Management (PRISM) in 1986 [PRISM, CSC Index and Hammer and Company, Dispersion and Interconnection: Approaches to Distributed Systems Architecture, June 1986.] [Davenport, T. H., Hammer, M., Metsisto, T., How Executives can Shape Their Company’s Information Systems, Harvard Business Review, March-April 1989] [Richardson, Gary L., Jackson, Brad M., Dickson, Gary W., A Principles Based Architecture: Lessons Learned from Texaco and Star Enterprise, MIS Quarterly; December 1990.] .

In recent years, it has become apparent that a key benefit to be gained from Enterprise architecture is the ability to support decision making in changing businesses. Because Enterprise Architecture brings together business models (e.g. process models, organizational charts, etc.) and technical models (e.g. systems architectures, data models, state diagrams, etc.) it is possible to trace the impact of organizational change on the systems, and also the business impact of changes to the systems.

As this benefit has emerged, many frameworks such as DoDAF, MODAF, or AGATE have adopted a standard meta model which defines the critical architectural elements and the dependencies between them. Applications based on these models can then query the underlying architectural information, providing a simple and strong mechanism for tracing strategies to organizational and technological impacts.

ee Also

* Open Source or Consortia-developed frameworks
**IDEAS Group A four-nation effort to develop a common ontology for architecture interoperability
**TOGAF - The Open Group Architecture Framework - a widely used .
**EABOK - The Guide to the Enterprise Architecture Body of Knowledge - U.S. Federal-funded guide to EA in the context of legislative and strategic business requirements.
** RM-ODP -- The Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (ITU-T Rec. X.901-X.904 | ISO/IEC 10746) defines an enterprise architecture framework for structuring the specifications of open distributed systems.

* Commercial frameworks
**IAF - Integrated Architecture Framework, from Capgemini company
**CLEAR Framework for Enterprise Architecture Atos Origin's Enterprise Architecture Framework
**OBASHI The OBASHI Business & IT methodology and framework
**Zachman Framework - An architecture framework, based on the work of John Zachman at IBM in the 1980s.

* Defense industry frameworks
** DODAF - the US Department of Defense Architecture Framework
** MODAF - The UK Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework
** AGATE - The France DGA Architecture Framework

* Government frameworks
** Government Enterprise Architecture, or GEA, which is a common framework legislated for use by departments of the Queensland Government.
** Federal Enterprise Architecture, or FEA, is the framework produced by the Office of Management and Budget for use within the U.S. Government.