Essay Sample on Zachman Framework: A Tool for Enterprise Architecture Modeling

The Zachman Framework is a tool used in the development of models used for enterprise architecture. The framework lets the users perceive an enterprise as well as the adopted information systems from various angles, offering a clear relationship between the various components. The framework utilizes the primitive interrogatives and historical classifications that have been founded on reification (Open Group TOGAF-SABSA Integration Working Group, 2011). Contrary to popular opinion, the Zachman Framework is not a methodology that outlines the processes of collecting, managing, and using the information included therein. It is the ontology that organizes architectural concepts hence, showing a model of an organization’s functions, elements, and processes.

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The security framework does not exist in isolation, a reason it is a part of the enterprise (Open Group TOGAF-SABSA Integration Working Group, 2011). Additionally, the security framework is business-driven, a reason it fits into the Zachman Framework (Open Group TOGAF-SABSA Integration Working Group, 2011). Similar to the Zachman Framework, the security framework also outlines a clear relationship that exists between the technical and procedural solutions that are unique in enhancing realizable business outcomes. Security architects also cooperate with enterprise architects who mold the Zachman Framework to enhance the success of the enterprise.

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is considered as the architecture framework that issues various methods and tools meant in assisting the acceptance, production, utilization, and monitoring of enterprise architecture (Open Group TOGAF-SABSA Integration Working Group, 2011). It is a free enterprise architecture methodology that uses the iterative process model in the various process activities. It is a high-level approach that considers a variety of factors, including security and risks, a reason it is compatible with security architecture. TOGAF is applicable in various areas, including work products such as deliverables and artifacts within those deliverables. It also encompasses the various architectural building blocks of the artifacts in an enterprise.

TOGAF and the Zachman Framework are important tools in enterprise architecture. While TOGAF is a methodology used in the acceptance, production, use, and management of enterprise architecture, the Zachman Framework is an ontology used to organize architectural concepts, including an enterprise's functions, elements, and processes. The two models integrate well with the security framework as the security framework cannot exist in isolation. The security framework provides technical and procedural solutions useful for the incorporation of the Zachman Framework and also offers a solution for integrating TOGAF – through Sherwood Applied Business Security Architecture (SABSA).

SABSA fits into the Zachman Framework through its capability to offer a methodology for security architecture as well as service management. The security framework is a key component for an effective business model, a reason SABSA fits well into the framework. It particularly delivers security infrastructure solutions for an enterprise. It fits into TOGAF by offering a risk-driven enterprise information security architectures, facts which are in line with the concepts of TOGAF (Open Group TOGAF-SABSA Integration Working Group, 2011). The two frameworks also demand strategy and planning for enterprise success through consideration of factors such as risk management, requirements management, and the TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM).

The Zachman Framework and TOGAF are two different enterprise architecture tools that are used to determine an organization’s success as it is attributed to factors such as the core functions, elements, and processes. Zachman Framework lets the users have a different perspective of the components of the enterprise. TOGAF is utilized where the management requires to evaluate and assess the processes of accepting, producing, using, and managing enterprise architecture. Even with the differences, the enterprise security framework is a perfect fit for both the Zachman Framework and TOGAF.

References

Open Group TOGAF-SABSA Integration Working Group. (2011). TOGAF and SABSA Integration: How SABSA and TOGAF complement each other to create better architectures. The Open Group and the SABSA Institute.