ArchiMate

ArchiMate gives enterprise architects a shared visual language. Just as engineers use standard symbols in technical drawings, architects using ArchiMate draw business processes, applications, data, infrastructure and their relationships with a defined set of shapes and connectors. Because the meaning of each element is specified, a diagram drawn by one architect can be read by another, and models can be exchanged between tools.

The language was developed in the Netherlands in the early 2000s and became a standard of The Open Group in 2009. It is designed to work alongside TOGAF, though it can be used with any framework. For enterprise architecture and IT strategy, ArchiMate makes it possible to build connected models in which a business capability can be traced to the applications that support it and the infrastructure those applications run on, which is essential for analyzing the effects and costs of change.

Definition of ArchiMate

ArchiMate is a modeling language standard that defines elements, relationships and viewpoints for describing enterprise architecture. The current version, ArchiMate 3.2, was published in 2022.

It complements TOGAF, which provides the method for developing architectures, by providing a notation for the models those architectures contain. Both are maintained by The Open Group.

Layers and Aspects

The core of ArchiMate covers three layers. The business layer describes actors, roles, processes, functions, services and business objects. The application layer describes application components, interfaces, services and data objects.

The technology layer describes nodes, devices, system software, networks and the artifacts deployed on them.

Each layer is described in terms of active structure, meaning who or what performs behavior, behavior itself, and passive structure, meaning the objects that behavior acts on.

Relationships connect elements within and across layers, such as an application component serving a business process or a node hosting an application.

Extensions

The strategy elements describe capabilities, value streams, resources and courses of action, linking architecture to business strategy. These elements allow a business capability map to be modeled in the same repository as the applications that support it.

The motivation elements describe stakeholders, drivers, goals, principles and requirements, explaining why the architecture looks the way it does.

The implementation and migration elements describe work packages, deliverables and plateaus, supporting roadmaps and target architecture planning. Physical elements describe equipment and facilities for organizations with physical operations.

Importance of ArchiMate in Enterprise Architecture

ArchiMate improves communication. A standard notation reduces misunderstandings between architects and makes diagrams easier for stakeholders to learn to read. Informal diagrams often use the same box or arrow to mean different things, which leads to different readers drawing different conclusions.

It enables connected models. Because elements and relationships are defined precisely, tools can store models as data rather than pictures, allowing analysis such as tracing the effect of retiring an application.

It also supports tool independence. Models can be exchanged between tools using a standard file format, reducing dependence on a single vendor. Skills transfer between organizations too, since architects trained in ArchiMate can work with models from any employer or client that uses it.

Supporting Analysis and Cost Views

Connected ArchiMate models allow impact analysis. Architects can select a technology component and see every application, process and capability that depends on it.

When cost data is attached to elements such as applications and nodes, the same models can show how much it costs to support a capability or what a change will save. This links architecture to total cost of ownership analysis.

Plateaus and work packages allow architects to model transition states and roadmaps, showing how the architecture changes over time.

These capabilities make ArchiMate models useful well beyond diagrams, as inputs to planning and investment decisions.

Common Challenges

The language is large, with dozens of element types and many relationship types. New users can find it intimidating, and diagrams that use too many element types become hard to read.

Business audiences may not want to learn a formal notation. Architects often produce simplified views for executives while keeping the full model underneath. The underlying model stays precise, while each view presents only what its audience needs.

Keeping models current requires effort. Models that are not connected to reliable data sources, such as the application inventory, drift out of date.