ArchiMate summary

Resources:

• The ArchiMate Enterprise Architecture Modeling Language

• ArchiMate Cookbook

• ArchiMate PlantUML macros

• Elements

• Examples

ArchiMate terminology

ArchiMate terminology focuses on these categories of words, that range from high-level to low-level:

• Motivation words
• Strategy words
• Business words
• Application words
• Technology words
• Physical words
• Implementation words

Motivation words

• Stakeholder: the role of an individual, team, or organization (or classes thereof) that represents their interests in the effects 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 driver.

• Goal: a high-level statement of intent, direction, or desired end state for an organization and its stakeholders.

• Outcome: an end result.

• Principle: a statement of intent defining a general property that applies to any system in a certain context in the architecture.

• Requirement: a statement of need defining a property that applies to a specific system as described by the architecture.

• Constraint: a factor that limits the realization of goals.

• Meaning: the knowledge or expertise present in, or the interpretation given to, a concept in a particular context.

• Value: the relative worth, utility, or importance of a concept.

Strategy words

• 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.

• Value Stream: a sequence of activities that create an overall result for a customer, stakeholder, or end user.

• Course of Action: an approach or plan for configuring some capabilities and resources of the enterprise, undertaken to achieve a goal.

Business words

• Business Actor: a business entity that is capable of performing 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 Interface: a point of access where a business service is made available to the environment.

• Business Process: a sequence of business behaviors that achieves a specific result 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 actors, business roles, or business collaborations.

• Business Event: an organizational state change.

• Business Service: explicitly defined behavior that a business role, business actor, or business collaboration exposes to its environment.

• Business Object: a concept used within a particular business domain.

• 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.

• 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.

Application words

• Application Component: an encapsulation of application functionality aligned to implementation structure, which is modular and replaceable.

• Application Collaboration: an aggregate of two or more application internal active structure elements that work together to perform collective application behavior.

• Application Interface: a point of access where application services are made available to a user, another application component, or a node.

• 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 Process: a sequence of application behaviors that achieves a specific result.

• Application Event: an application state change.

• Application Service: an explicitly defined exposed application behavior.

• Data Object: data structured for automated processing.

Technology words

• 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 Collaboration: an aggregate of two or more technology internal active structure elements that work together to perform collective technology behavior.

• Technology interface: a point of access where technology services offered by a node can be accessed.

• Path: a link between two or more nodes, through which these nodes can exchange data, energy, or material.

• Communication Network: a set of structures that connects nodes for transmission, routing, and reception of data.

• Technology function: a collection of technology behavior that can be performed by a node.

• Technology process: a sequence of technology behaviors that achieves a specific result.

• Technology interaction: a unit of collective technology behavior performed by (a collaboration of) two or more nodes.

• Technology event: a technology state change.

• Technology service: an explicitly defined exposed technology behavior.

• Artifact: a piece of data that is used or produced in a software development process, or by deployment and operation of an IT system.

Physical words

• 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 energy.

Implementation words

• Work Package: a series of actions identified and designed to achieve specific results within specified time and resource constraints.

• Deliverable: a precisely-defined result of a work package.

• Implementation Event: a state change related to implementation or migration.

• Plateau: a relatively stable state of the architecture that exists during a limited period of time.

• Gap: a statement of difference between two plateaus.

ArchiMate diagramming

ArchiMate diagramming focuses on these categories of elements, that range from high-level to low-level:

• Motivation elements
• Strategy elements
• Business elements
• Application elements
• Technology elements
• Physical elements
• Implementation elements

Motivation elements

Element	Definition	Notation	Example
Stakeholder	the role of an individual, team, or organization (or classes thereof) that represents their interests in the effects of the architecture.		CEO at ACME
Driver	an external or internal condition that motivates an organization to define its goals and implement the changes necessary to achieve them.		Customer satisfaction
Assessment	the result of an analysis of the state of affairs of the enterprise with respect to some driver.		Net Promoter Score is 25
Goal	a high-level statement of intent, direction, or desired end state for an organization and its stakeholders.		Increase customer satisfaction as measured by Net Promoter Score.
Outcome	an end result.		Net Promoter Score is 30+ by end of quarter.
Principle	a statement of intent defining a general property that applies to any system in a certain context in the architecture.		We speak directly with customers to learn from them.
Requirement	a statement of need defining a property that applies to a specific system as described by the architecture.		Hire 5 customer service representatives
Constraint	a factor that limits the realization of goals.		Hiring customer service representatives and training them takes time and costs money.
Meaning	the knowledge or expertise present in, or the interpretation given to, a concept in a particular context.		Successful customer onboarding
Value	the relative worth, utility, or importance of a concept.		A customer generates what they want twice as fast

Strategy elements

Element	Description	Notation
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.
Value stream	a sequence of activities that  create an overall result for a customer, stakeholder, or end user.
Course of action	an approach or plan for configuring some capabilities and resources of the enterprise, undertaken to achieve a goal.

Business elements

Element	Description	Notation
Business Actor	a business entity that is capable of performing 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 Interface	a point of access where a business service is made available to the environment.
Business Process	a sequence of business behaviors that achieves a specific result 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 actors, business roles, or business collaborations.
Business Event	an organizational state change.
Business Service	explicitly defined behavior that a business role, business actor, or business collaboration exposes to its environment.
Business Object	a concept used within a particular business domain.
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.
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.

Application elements

Element	Definition	Notation
Application Component	an encapsulation of application functionality aligned to implementation structure, which is modular and replaceable.
Application Collaboration	an aggregate of two or more application internal active structure elements that work together to perform collective application behavior.
Application Interface	a point of access where application services are made available to a user, another application component, or a node.
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 Process	a sequence of application behaviors that achieves a specific result.
Application Event	an application state change.
Application Service	an explicitly defined exposed application behavior.
Data Object	data structured for automated processing.

Technology elements

Element	Definition	Notation
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 collaboration	an aggregate of two or more technology internal active structure elements that work together to perform collective technology behavior.
Technology interface	a point of access where technology services offered by a node can be accessed.
Technology path	a link between two or more nodes, through which these nodes can exchange data, energy, or material.
Technology communication network	a set of structures that connects nodes for transmission, routing, and reception of data.
Technology function	a collection of technology behavior that can be performed by a node.
Technology process	a sequence of technology behaviors that achieves a specific result.
Technology interaction	a unit of collective technology behavior performed by (a collaboration of) two or more nodes.
Technology event	a technology state change.
Technology service	an explicitly defined exposed technology behavior.
Artifact	a piece of data that is used or produced in a software development process, or by deployment and operation of an IT system.

Physical elements

Element	Definition	Notation
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 energy.

Implementation elements

Element	Definition	Notation
Work Package	a series of actions identified and designed to achieve specific results within specified time and resource constraints.
Deliverable	a precisely-defined result of a work package.
Implementation Event	a state change related to implementation or migration.
Plateau	a relatively stable state of the architecture that exists during a limited period of time.
Gap	a statement of difference between two implementation plateaus.