The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering (IEEE), the US Department of Defence (DoD) and various other business and technology authorities have some ideas in common; that ‘enterprise’ is about the structure of systems or enterprise, their components, and how the components fit and work together to actualise objectives (Schekkerman, 2005 P.21).

Enterprise Architect (Baker and Janiszewski, 2005; p.2) is a cohesive force that binds technology and business operations in support of strategic goals. Deltek solution UK was able to employ strategic EA to implement the development of Whitedrum, www.whitedrum.com and www.whitedrum.co.uk the free classified ads websites in the UK and Africa.

A framework describes how organisations develop, manage, and use information technology to optimally support its business functions. While an Enterprise is a business or organisation formed to produce a product or provide a service, Architecture is the design of any type of structure, whether physical or conceptual, real or virtual. (Rourke et al, 2003 p.06). "Enterprise architecture is a strategic information asset base, which defines the business mission, the information necessary to perform the mission, the technologies necessary to perform the mission, and the transitional process for implementing new technologies in response to the changing mission needs" – USA Federal CIO Council.

From the above however it has been possible to draw out from the various definitions the key subjects of EA, which are architecture, elements, enterprise, and products or results

Frameworks

An Enterprise Architecture framework is a communication model for developing Enterprise Architecture (Schekkerman, 2005 P.85). The importance of EA to organisations can not be overemphasised. Organisations are motivated by the reality that they need EA to remain competitive and support business continuity and this is because Enterprise architecture is a framework that describes how organisations develop, manage, and use information technology to optimally support its business functions.

Using an architecture framework will speed up and simplify architecture development, ensure more complete coverage of the designed solution, and make certain that the architecture selected allows for future growth in response to the needs of the business (TOGAF V8.1). However, for clarity and simplicity the Enterprise Architecture framework discussion shall be limited to TOGAF, DODAF, and ZACHMAN.

ZACHMAN

The Zachman Framework which was originally authored by John Zachman in the 1980s at IBM has become widely adopted by IT Organisations (Sims, 2004 p.119) this is because the framework gives a clear mapping of the key elements into describable category which aside being logical could also aid the easy application of this framework. The key elements are; Data (what), function (How), Network (where), People (who), Time (when), and motivation (why).

The Zachman framework summarises a collection of perspectives based upon architecture. Those perspectives are described in a two-dimensional matrix that has axes defined by the type of stakeholders and aspect of the architecture. The columns respectively, represent different aspects or views of organisations architecture. (Sims, 2004 p.126)

To be continued ……..

Author

Dele Oluwole graduated in England with a master’s degree in computing. He is an IT consultant and a member of the prestigious British Computer Society (BCS).