Source
ArchiMate (Wikipedia)
A basic description of the language, history, and key concepts of ArchiMate.
Specification
The Open Group: ArchiMate Overview
An official overview of the standard and its application in enterprise architecture.
ArchiMate — an open enterprise architecture modeling language from The Open Group. Its strength is a unified model for business, applications and technology to show the connection of goals, processes, systems and infrastructure on one canvas.
Core: Layers and Aspects
Business Layer
Business actors, processes, services and rules. Responsible for how the organization creates value.
Application Layer
Applications and their interactions: components, interfaces and services that support business.
Technology Layer
Infrastructure nodes, system software, networks and technical services on which applications run.
Active Structure
Who performs the behavior: roles, components, nodes, and other active elements.
Behavior
What is happening: processes, functions, interactions, events and services.
Passive Structure
What they work with: objects, data, artifacts and other passive entities.
Examples of ArchiMate diagrams
Examples in UML section style: select viewpoint and see corresponding diagram template.
Layered Viewpoint
Connection of a business process, application and technological service.
Related notation
C4 Model
It complements ArchiMate well at the level of software architecture and runtime circuits.
Language extensions
Strategy
Goals, capabilities, resources and courses of action for planning the target architecture.
Motivation
Drivers, goals, outcomes, requirements and constraints as justification for decisions.
Implementation & Migration
Work packages, deliverables, plateaus and roadmap of the transition from as-is to to-be.
Physical
Equipment and physical resources (e.g. workshops, devices, IoT equipment).
Typical relationships
Dependency
Serving / Used-by
Indicates which service or interface is being consumed by another element.
Traceability
Realization
Links abstraction and implementation: who implements the required service/object.
Ownership
Assignment
Assigning behavior to a specific performer (role, component, node).
Dynamics
Triggering / Flow
Causal-temporal and flow relationships between process steps or functions.
Structure
Composition / Aggregation
Structural decomposition: what parts the system or capability consists of.
Data Interaction
Access
How the behavioral element reads/modifies data or artifacts.
Practical workflow
Practical Workflow Steps
6 stages from scoping to model upkeepGoal and audience
Define who consumes the model: CIO/CTO, domain architects, and product teams.
Viewpoint
Pick the right viewpoint: capability, application cooperation, or migration roadmap.
Baseline
Model the as-is state for business, applications, and technology in one shared vocabulary.
Target
Design the to-be state and capture explicit gaps between current and target architecture.
Migration
Break the transition into plateaus/work packages and map it to a change roadmap.
Model upkeep
Keep the model up to date after architecture decisions and release waves.
Goal and audience
Define who consumes the model: CIO/CTO, domain architects, and product teams.
Viewpoint
Pick the right viewpoint: capability, application cooperation, or migration roadmap.
Baseline
Model the as-is state for business, applications, and technology in one shared vocabulary.
Target
Design the to-be state and capture explicit gaps between current and target architecture.
Migration
Break the transition into plateaus/work packages and map it to a change roadmap.
Model upkeep
Keep the model up to date after architecture decisions and release waves.
Common mistakes
No viewpoint
Immediately draw everything and about everything without an explicit viewpoint and model boundaries.
Mixing levels
Mix ArchiMate and UML code detailing in one diagram.
Loss of motivation
Ignore drivers/goals/requirements and draw only equipment.
No migration plan
Do not associate the target architecture with the real migration plan and change owners.