The Full Form of BRM is‍ Business Reference Model.

The Business Reference Model (BRM) is a graphical, hierarchical representation of the federal government day-to-day business operations and activities. The BRM represents the first layer of the Federal Enterprise Architecture, which presents the business using a functionally driven approach

One of the first business reference models ever defined was the “IMPPACT Business Reference Model” around 1990, which was the result of a research project in the Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM) field of the ESPRIT1 programme. Gielingh et al. (1933) described: The IMPPACT Business Reference Model is expressed in the generic language constructs provided by IDEF0… It describes the requirements for CIM seen from a business point of view. Views modelled are manufacturing activities, real and information flow objects resource objects (information and material processing components) and organisational aspects (departments and their relations to activities and resources). The complete manufacturing system (including the production system and its management) is modelled by the IMPPACT Business Reference Model. Management covers both the planning of the production and the planning and control of this production. The term IMPPACT stood for Integrated Manufacturing of Products and Processes using Advanced Computer Technologies Furthermore, in its framework were incorporated CIMOSA as reference model, NIAM for information modelling, and the data modeling language EXPRESS for information structure implementation.

In the 1990s, business reference models were hardly an item. An exception was a 1991 book about IT management, which mentioned that the Kodak management had developed a business reference model 10 years earlier. A 1996 manual of the SAP R/3 enterprise resource planning software stipulated the existence on the business reference model of the R/3 System. However, in the 1990s there was a significant development of reference models in related fields, which, resulted in the developments of Integrated business planning, the Open System Environment Reference Model, the Workflow Reference Model, TOGAF and the Zachman Framework.

In the new millennium business reference models started emerging in several fields from network management systems, and E-business, to the US Federal government. The US Federal government published it’s “Business Reference Model”, Version 1.0 in February 2002. Related developments in this decade were the development of the Treasury Enterprise Architecture Framework, and the OASIS SOA Reference Model.