(…) Send note to Paul Prueitt . (Note 2. .)

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Notes on General Framework Notation: Note 1

The Generalized Framework (GF) has the form of an n tuple:

< a(0), a(1), a(2), . . . , a(n) >

where a(0) is the situational type. Taking the cross product of one or more enumerations forms the cells of the GF. For example, in the Zachman Framework the enumerations are about interrogatives and perspectives.

Perspectives are: { planner, owner, designer, builder, subcontractor }

Interrogatives are: { what, how, where, who, when, why }

Figure 1: The Zachman Framework

For example, the 3,2 cell is the designer/how cell, and generally is regarded as questions about how the designer functions.

The utility of a framework, any framework, includes:

1) The framework is used over and over again to provide commonality to analysis

2) The framework has a completeness to the range of information that can and should be gathered during the information gathering phase

3) The framework allows individual “cells’ to be focused during knowledge elicitation independent of other considerations so that an abstraction over the multiple instances of analysis occurs naturally.

One can think of frameworks being used in various ways. But the use of the Zachman Framework in IT market research has been well established. The value that our categorical Abstraction (cA) work will have to this is just being discovered.

Work on mapping supply and demand has long been a dream for many information scientists.

(…) Comments can be sent to ontologyStream e-forum . (Note 2. .)