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ArchiMate Standard

3 min readStatus:Seedling

Core Idea

ArchiMate is an enterprise architecture modeling language that provides a standardized way to visualize business, application, and technology layers and their relationships, often used alongside TOGAF to combine systematic methodology with clear visual communication.

ArchiMate Standard

ArchiMate is an open, independent modeling language developed by The Open Group specifically for enterprise architecture. Unlike software-focused diagramming standards like UML, ArchiMate is designed to bridge the gap between business architecture and technical implementation. It provides a comprehensive framework for describing, analyzing, and visualizing the relationships across three primary architectural domains: Business, Application, and Technology layers.

The standard defines a rich set of elements and relationships that allow architects to model not just technical systems, but also:

  • Business processes
  • Organizational structures
  • Information flows
  • Strategic motivations

This makes ArchiMate particularly valuable in large organizations where understanding the alignment between business strategy and IT infrastructure is critical. Each layer in ArchiMate has its own specific elements—for example:

  • Business layer: Business Actor, Business Process, Business Service
  • Application layer: Application Component, Data Object

ArchiMate uses a consistent visual language with specific shapes and colors for different element types and layers. This consistency helps stakeholders from different backgrounds communicate using a shared vocabulary:

  • Business executives
  • Enterprise architects
  • Solution architects
  • Developers

The standard also supports viewpoints—filtered perspectives of the architecture model tailored to specific stakeholder concerns. Examples include:

  • Business Process Cooperation: how different business processes interact
  • Application Usage: how applications support business functions

While ArchiMate is comprehensive and powerful, its breadth can make it complex to adopt, particularly for teams focused solely on software architecture rather than broader enterprise concerns. Richards and Ford note that ArchiMate is particularly suited for organizations that need to model the intersection of business architecture and technical systems, rather than for pure software architecture visualization.

ArchiMate is frequently used in combination with TOGAF, The Open Group’s enterprise architecture framework. While TOGAF provides the methodology (the “how” of developing enterprise architecture), ArchiMate provides the modeling language (the “what” to visualize). ArchiMate’s three core layers—Business, Application, and Technology—map directly to TOGAF’s Architecture Development Method (ADM) phases, creating a natural integration between systematic process and visual communication.

Why This Matters

Enterprise architects need to communicate across organizational boundaries—from C-suite executives to infrastructure teams. ArchiMate provides a standardized visual language that prevents miscommunication and ensures all stakeholders can understand how technology decisions support business objectives. Without a common modeling language, enterprise architecture becomes fragmented, leading to misalignment between IT investments and business strategy.

Sources

Note

This content was drafted with assistance from AI tools for research, organization, and initial content generation. All final content has been reviewed, fact-checked, and edited by the author to ensure accuracy and alignment with the author’s intentions and perspective.

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