Introduction to the Zachman Framework

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Traditional Architectural Approaches.

The traditional view of system implementation is seen as a series of steps toward implementation, covering areas such as analysis, design, construction, documentation, handover, etc. Hay (1997) gives a good undertaking of the traditional approach stating:

Many methodologies are organized around the “system development life cycle”, an organization of the steps required to develop systems. This is expressed as consisting of:

• Strategy – The planning of an organization’s overall systems development effort.
• Analysis – The detailed definition of requirements for a particular area of the business.
• Design – The specific application of technology to the requirements defined during analysis.
• Construction – The actual construction of the system.
• Documentation – Preparation of the user manuals, reference manuals, etc. to describe the system.
• Transition – The implementation of the system, so as to make it part of the infrastructure of the organization.
• Production – The ongoing monitoring of the system to ensure that it continues to meet the needs of the organization.

Notice that each of these steps addresses issues of data and function. Data and functions are typically addressed as separate topics, although ideally, they are addressed cooperatively.

Most methodologies portray the system development life cycle in terms approximating these. Some go so far as to give it the acronym “SDLC.”