ArchiMate® 2.1 Specification Maintenance Release

By Andrew Josey, The Open Group

We’re pleased to announce the latest release of the ArchiMate modeling language specification.

ArchiMate® 2.1, an Open Group standard, is a full updated release of the ArchiMate Specification addressing comments raised since the introduction of Issue 2.0 in 2012. It retains the major features and structure of ArchiMate 2.0 adding further detail and clarification, thereby preserving existing investment in the ArchiMate modeling language. In this blog, we take a brief look at what has changed[1].

The changes in this release are as follows:

1. Additional explanatory text has been added in section 2.6 describing the ArchiMate Framework, its layers and aspects.
2. Corrections have been made to figures throughout the specification for consistency with the text, including metamodel diagrams, concept diagrams and example models.
3. An explanation has been added describing the use of colors within the specification. This makes it clear that the metamodel diagrams use colors to distinguish the different aspects of the ArchiMate Framework, and that within the models there are no formal semantics assigned to colors.
4. Within the three layers, the concepts are now classified according to the aspects of the ArchiMate Framework: Active Structure Concepts (instead of Structural Concepts), Behavioral Concepts, and Passive Structure Concepts (instead of Informational Concepts).
5. Duplicate text has been removed from the layers; for example meaning was defined in Section 3.4 and also in Section 3.4.2).
6. In the Layers, a number of concept diagrams have been corrected to show all the permitted symbols for the concept; for example, Business Interface, Application Service, and Infrastructure Service.
7. In the Architecture Viewpoints, the aspects for each viewpoint are now classified as per the ArchiMate Framework into Active Structure, Behavior, or Passive Structure.
8. In the Architecture Viewpoints, a number of Concepts and Relationships diagrams have been updated to correct the relationships shown, similarly a number of example diagrams have corrections (for example use of a Communication Path to connect two nodes).
9. In the Language Extension Mechanisms chapter, it has been made clear that specialization can also be applied to Relationships.
10. In the Motivation Extension, it has been made clear that the association relationship can be used to connect motivation elements.
11. The status of the appendices has been made clear; Appendix A is informative, whereas Appendix B is normative.
12. Appendix B, the Relationship Tables has a number of corrections applied.

More information on the ArchiMate 2.1 Specification, including additional resources, can be obtained from The Open Group website here: http://www.opengroup.org/subjectareas/enterprise/archimate

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.