Below you can find a reference model / Best practice collection of definitions and views that are common for phase one of EA work:

We already have too much frameworks available for use. Generic frameworks like Zachman, TOGAF, Gartner, etc. As well as  industry oriented frameworks such as FEAF, TEAF, NGOSS, etc'. So what is the value of vendor EA framework?

The first criteria, as far as I can concern, is what is the percentage of this vendor in my IT portfolio. If this vendor covers more then 50% of the applications that I run, I would consider his EA framework seriously. If not I wouldn't even think about it and will use any known vendor neutral framework.

I believe that vendor's framework value depends on their ability to provide the client a  road map to the vendor future releases. If the vendor framework will help me to minimize changes that I need to do 3-5 years from now (when the vendor will release new line of his products) it worth the effort for using such a framework. If the user don’t have this value I don't see any  need to use his framework.

On top of this, if the vendor is using his own framework and he is not relaying on existing well known framework I would also think twice before using  it. After all EA work is done for all IT and we want to use a framework that is based on experience of others.

Last but not least, never forget that EA frameworks are reference models. You'll never use them as they are! They serve as a reference model that you can adjust them to your own enterprise need.

Business concept is one of the most important steps of enterprise architecture, at least from my own point of view. Business concept shows something about the level that enterprise architecture practice understand the business, thus it’s a stage in the enterprise maturity level of enterprise architecture. In this post I’ll try to go through the why, when, where, what who and how of business concept.

This is the fourth in a series of articles responding to questions about Enterprise Architecture.  This article is a bit long because it includes a number of statements-of-work.

1.  What are the types of architectures? 

Response:  In following table are the types of architectures.  I have not heard anyone use the word architecture associated with the Zachman focus areas of people, time, and motivation.  This is probably because they are incorporated into the other architectures. 

George Brundage is retired (June 2004), and is living in Alexandria.  He was an Enterprise Architect at the Department of Homeland Security, and he MC’ed the ArchitecturePlus Program for several years.  His may be reached at (H) 703-549-0901, © 703-772-7410, and at george.brundage@yahoo.com.