Most enterprise architects have heard of the Zachman Framework. Indeed, many know that John Zachman first developed his eponymous framework in the 1980s and are familiar with its iconic graphic. Still, it truly astonishes me that some architects know very little about Zachman, or his framework. Upon doing my research for this Executive Update, I was amazed to learn that there really isn’t a good summary of the contributions that Zachman’s work has made to enterprise architecture (EA).

So … here is my attempt to record the importance of the Zachman Framework.