By Andrew Josey, The Open Group, Henry Franken, BiZZdesign
ArchiMate® 2.0, an Open Group Standard, is an upwards-compatible evolution from ArchiMate 1.0 adding new features, as well as addressing usage feedback and comments raised.
ArchiMate 2.0 standard supports modeling throughout the TOGAF Architecture Development Method (ADM).
ArchiMate 2.0 consists of:
- The ArchiMate Core, which contains several minor improvements on the 1.0 version.
- The Motivation extension, to model stakeholders, drivers for change, business goals, principles, and requirements. This extension mainly addresses the needs in the early TOGAF phases and the requirements management process.
- The Implementation and Migration extension, to support project portfolio management, gap analysis, and transition and migration planning. This extension mainly addresses the needs in the later phases of the TOGAF ADM cycle.
ArchiMate 2.0 offers a modeling language to create fully integrated models of the organization’s enterprise architecture, the motivation for the enterprise architecture, and the programs, projects and migration paths to implement this enterprise architecture. In this way, full (forward and backward) traceability between the elements in the enterprise architecture, their motivations and their implementation can be obtained.
In the ArchiMate Core, a large number of minor improvements have been made compared to ArchiMate 1.0: inconsistencies have been removed, examples have been improved and additional text has been inserted to clarify certain aspects. Two new concepts have been added based on needs experienced by practitioners:
- Location: To model a conceptual point or extent in space that can be assigned to structural elements and, indirectly, of behavior elements.
- Infrastructure Function: To model the internal behavior of a node in the technology layer. This makes the technology layer more consistent with the other two layers.
The Motivation extension defines the following concepts:
- Stakeholder: The role of an individual, team, or organization (or classes thereof) that represents their interests in, or concerns relative to, the outcome of the architecture.
- Driver: Something that creates, motivates, and fuels the change in an organization.
- Assessment: The outcome of some analysis of some driver.
- Goal: An end state that a stakeholder intends to achieve.
- Requirement: A statement of need that must be realized by a system.
- Constraint: A restriction on the way in which a system is realized.
- Principle: A normative property of all systems in a given context or the way in which they are realized.
For motivation elements, a limited set of relationships has been defined, partly re-used from the ArchiMate Core: aggregation (decomposition), realization, and (positive or negative) influence.
The Implementation and Migration extension defines the following concepts (and re-uses the relationships of the Core):
- Work Package: A series of actions designed to accomplish a unique goal within a specified time.
- Deliverable: A precisely defined outcome of a work package.
- Plateau: A relatively stable state of the architecture that exists during a limited period of time.
- Gap: An outcome of a gap analysis between two plateaus.
ArchiMate 2 Certification
New with ArchiMate 2.0 is the introduction of a certification program. This includes certification for people and accreditation for training courses. It also includes certification for tools supporting the ArchiMate standard.
The ArchiMate 2 Certification for People program enables professionals around the globe to demonstrate their knowledge of the ArchiMate standard. ArchiMate 2 Certification for People is achieved through an examination and practical exercises as part of an Accredited ArchiMate 2 Training Course.
The Open Group Accreditation for ArchiMate training courses provides an authoritative and independent assurance of the quality and relevance of the training courses.
The Open Group ArchiMate Tool Certification Program makes certification available to tools supporting ArchiMate. The goal of the program is to ensure that architecture artifacts created with a certified tool are conformant to the language.
Further Reading
ArchiMate 2.0 is available for online reading and download from The Open Group Bookstore at www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/c118.htm.
A white paper with further details on ArchiMate 2.0 is available to download from The Open Group Bookstore at www.opengroup.org/bookstore/catalog/w121.htm .
Andrew Josey is Director of Standards within The Open Group. He is currently managing the standards process for The Open Group, and has recently led the standards development projects for TOGAF 9.1, ArchiMate 2.0, IEEE Std 1003.1-2008 (POSIX), and the core specifications of the Single UNIX Specification, Version 4. Previously, he has led the development and operation of many of The Open Group certification development projects, including industry-wide certification programs for the UNIX system, the Linux Standard Base, TOGAF, and IEEE POSIX. He is a member of the IEEE, USENIX, UKUUG, and the Association of Enterprise Architects.
Henry Franken is the managing director of BiZZdesign and is chair of The Open Group ArchiMate Forum. As chair of The Open Group ArchiMate Forum, Henry led the development of the ArchiMate Version 2.o standard. Henry is a speaker at many conferences and has co-authored several international publications and Open Group White Papers. Henry is co-founder of the BPM-Forum. At BiZZdesign, Henry is responsible for research and innovation.
