page_title: ArchiMate
section_title: General structure of models within the different layers
hierarchical_section_title: ArchiMate / Archimate Language / General structure of models within the different layers
caption_attribution_description: English: Core concepts of the ArchiMate language
context_page_description: ArchiMate is an open and independent enterprise architecture modeling language to support the description, analysis and visualization of architecture within and across business domains in an unambiguous way.
  ArchiMate is a technical standard from The Open Group and is based on the concepts of the IEEE 1471 standard. It is supported by various tool vendors and consulting firms. ArchiMate is also a registered trademark of The Open Group.
  The Open Group has a certification program for ArchiMate users, software tools and courses.
  ArchiMate distinguishes itself from other languages such as Unified Modeling Language and Business Process Modeling and Notation by its enterprise modelling scope.
  Also, UML and BPMN are meant for a specific use and they are quite heavy – containing about 150 and 250 modeling concepts whereas ArchiMate works with just about 50. The goal of ArchiMate is to be ”as small as possible”, not to cover every edge scenario imaginable. To be easy to learn and apply, ArchiMate was intentionally restricted “to the concepts that suffice for modeling the proverbial 80% of practical cases".
context_section_description: The general structure of models within the different layers is similar. The same types of concepts and relations are used, although their exact nature and granularity differ.
  First, it is necessary to distinguish the structural or static aspect and the behavioural or dynamic aspect. Behavioural concepts are assigned to structural concepts, to show who or what displays the behaviour. For example, role, interface and collaboration are assigned to business process, organisational service and business interaction, respectively.
  Second, there must be a distinction between an external view and an internal view on systems. When looking at the behavioral aspect, these views reflect the principles of service orientation. The service concept represents a unit of essential functionality that a system exposes to its environment. For the external users, only this external functionality, together with non-functional aspects such as the quality of service, costs etc., are relevant.  Services are accessible through interfaces, which constitute the external view on the structural aspect.
  Although for the external users only the external view is relevant, the design of organisations or systems and their internal operations and management also requires knowledge about the internal realisation of the services and interfaces. For this realisation, it is necessary to make a distinction between behavior that is performed by an individual structural element (e.g., actor, role component, etc.), or collective behavior (interaction) that is performed by a collaboration of multiple structural elements.
caption: Core concepts of the ArchiMate language (Lankhorst, 2013).
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