ArchiMate is The Open Group‘s open and independent modeling language for enterprise architecture, supported by different tool vendors and consulting firms. ArchiMate provides instruments to support enterprise architects in describing, analyzing and visualizing the relationships among business domains in an unambiguous way. Well-established disciplines like civil engineering or building and construction use internationally accepted standards for describing their designs.
ArchiMate is a modeling technique (“language”) for describing enterprise architectures. It presents a clear set of concepts within and relationships between architecture domains and offers a simple and uniform structure for describing the contents of these domains. Just like an architectural drawing in classical building architecture describes the various aspects of the construction and use of a building.
ArchiMate Business Layer Notations
Name
Representation
Definition *
Business Actor
A business entity that is capable of performing the behavior.
Business Role
The responsibility for performing specific behavior, to which an actor can be assigned, or the part an actor plays in a particular action or event.
Business Collaboration
An aggregate of two or more business internal active structure elements that work together to perform collective behavior.
Business Process
A sequence of business behaviors that achieves a specific outcome such as a defined set of products or business services.
Business Function
A collection of business behavior based on a chosen set of criteria (typically required business resources and/or competencies), closely aligned to an organization, but not necessarily explicitly governed by the organization.
Business Interaction
A unit of collective business behavior performed by (a collaboration of) two or more business roles.
Business Event
A business behavior element that denotes an organizational state change. It may originate from and be resolved inside or outside the organization.
Business Service
An explicitly defined exposed business behavior.
Business Interface
A point of access where a business service is made available to the environment.
Business Object
A concept used within a particular business domain.
Product
A coherent collection of services and/or passive structure elements, accompanied by a contract/set of agreements, which is offered as a whole to (internal or external) customers.
Contract
A formal or informal specification of an agreement between a provider and a consumer that specifies the rights and obligations associated with a product and establishes functional and non-functional parameters for interaction.
Representation
A perceptible form of the information carried by a business object.
ArchiMate Application Layer Notations
Name
Representation
Definition *
Application Collaboration
An aggregate of two or more application components that work together to perform collective application behavior.
Application Component
Encapsulation of application functionality aligned to implementation structure, which is modular and replaceable. It encapsulates its behavior and data, exposes services, and makes them available through interfaces.
Application Service
An explicitly defined exposed application behavior.
Application Function
Automated behavior that can be performed by an application component.
Application Interaction
A unit of collective application behavior performed by (a collaboration of) two or more application components.
Application Interface
A point of access where application services are made available to a user, another application component, or a node.
Application Process
A sequence of application behaviors that achieves a specific outcome.
Application Event
An application behavior element that denotes a state change.
Data Object
Data structured for automated processing.
ArchiMate Technology Layer Notations
Name
Representation
Definition *
Node
A computational or physical resource that hosts, manipulates, or interacts with other computational or physical resources.
Device
A physical IT resource upon which system software and artifacts may be stored or deployed for execution.
System Software
Software that provides or contributes to an environment for storing, executing, and using software or data deployed within it.
Technology Interface
A point of access where technology services offered by a node can be accessed.
Technology Function
A collection of technology behavior that can be performed by a node.
Technology Service
An explicitly defined exposed technology behavior.
Technology Collaboration
An aggregate of two or more nodes that work together to perform collective technology behavior.
Technology Interaction
A unit of collective technology behavior performed by (a collaboration of) two or more nodes.
Technology Event
A technology behavior element that denotes a state change.
Technology Process
A sequence of technology behaviors that achieves a specific outcome.
Artifact
A piece of data that is used or produced in a software development process, or by deployment and operation of a system.
Communication Path
A link between two or more nodes, through which these nodes can exchange data or material.
Network
A set of structures that connects computer systems or other electronic devices for transmission, routing, and reception of data or data-based communications such as voice and video.
ArchiMate Physical Elements’ Notations
Name
Representation
Definition *
Equipment
One or more physical machines, tools, or instruments that can create, use, store, move, or transform materials.
Facility
A physical structure or environment.
Distribution Network
A physical network used to transport materials or energy.
Material
Tangible physical matter or physical elements.
ArchiMate Strategy Elements’ Notations
Name
Representation
Definition *
Resource
An asset owned or controlled by an individual or organization.
Capability
An ability that an active structure element, such as an organization, person, or system, possesses.
Course of Action
An approach or plan for configuring some capabilities and resources of the enterprise, undertaken to achieve a goal.
ArchiMate Motivation Elements’ Notations
Name
Representation
Definition *
Stakeholder
The role of an individual, team, or organization (or classes thereof) that represents their interests in the outcome of the architecture.
Driver
An external or internal condition that motivates an organization to define its goals and implement the changes necessary to achieve them.
Assessment
The result of an analysis of the state of affairs of the enterprise with respect to some drivers.
Goal
A high-level statement of intent, direction, or desired end state for an organization and its stakeholders.
Outcome
An end result that has been achieved.
Principle
A qualitative statement of intent that should be met by the architecture.
Requirement
A statement of need that must be met by the architecture.
Constraint
A factor that prevents or obstructs the realization of goals.
Meaning
The knowledge or expertise present in, or the interpretation is given to, a core element in a particular context.
Value
The relative worth, utility, or importance of a core element or an outcome.
