Basic ArchiMate Views and Viewpoints: Composition, Support, Collaboration, and Implementation

Basic Views

ArchiMate basic views consist of ArchiMate elements and the three main layers—business, application, and technology. The following table lists ArchiMate 3.1 example viewpoints, grouped into four categories, indicating their direction and scope.

Composition: view that defines internal composition and aggregation of elements.

Support: view showing how the element you are looking at is supported by other elements, usually from a lower layer to a higher one.

Collaboration: view towards mutual cooperation of peer elements, often across different aspects.

Implementation: view of the element that implements other elements, usually from a higher layer down to a lower one.

Composition View

Name

Viewpoint

Concern

Organization

Structure of the enterprise in terms of roles, departments, etc.

Identify capabilities, authority, and responsibility

Information Structure

Shows the structure of information used in the enterprise.

Structure and dependencies of data and information, consistency and completeness

Technology

Infrastructure and platform of the enterprise information system such as networks, devices, and system software.

Stability, security, dependency, and cost of the infrastructure

Layering

Provides an overview of the architecture.

Consistency, reduced complexity, impact of change, flexibility

Physical

Physical environment and how it relates to IT infrastructure.

Relationships and dependencies of the physical environment with IT infrastructure

Support View

Name

Viewpoint

Concern

Product

Shows the content of the product.

Product development, enterprise product value

Application Usage

Links applications to their usage in business processes, etc.

Consistency and completeness, reduced complexity

Technology Usage

Shows how applications use technology.

Dependencies, performance, scalability

Collaboration View

Name

Viewpoint

Concern

Business Process Collaboration

Shows relationships between various business processes.

Business processes, consistency and completeness, dependencies between responsibilities

Application Collaboration

Shows application components and their interrelationships.

Relationships and dependencies between applications, service orchestration, consistency and completeness, reduced complexity

Implementation View

Name

Viewpoint

Concern

Service Implementation

Shows how services are realized through necessary behavior.

Value addition to business processes, consistency and completeness, responsibility

Implementation and Deployment

Shows how applications are mapped to underlying technology.

Structure of application platforms and their relationship with supporting technology

Application Usage View

What is the Application Usage View?

The Application Usage View shows how applications cooperate to support business processes and how other applications use a given application. It can be used to identify services required by business processes and other applications, or to design business processes by describing available services.

The table below provides a more detailed description of the Application Usage View.

Stakeholders

Enterprise, process and application architects, operations managers

Concern

Consistency and completeness, reduced complexity

Purpose

Design, decision making

Scope

Multiple layers / multiple aspects

Elements

Business actors, roles, collaborations, processes/functions/interactions, events, objects; application components/collaborations, interfaces, processes/functions/interactions, events, services, data objects

Application Usage View Example

The diagram below shows the original model drawn for the Application Usage View.

Implementation and Deployment View

What is the Implementation and Deployment View?

The Implementation and Deployment View shows the realization of applications on the infrastructure. It maps applications and components to artifacts and maps the information used by these applications to the underlying storage infrastructure.

The table below provides a more detailed description of the Implementation and Deployment View.

Stakeholders

Application and domain architects

Concern

Structure of the application platform and its relationship with supporting technology

Purpose

Design, decision making

Scope

Multiple layers / multiple perspectives

Elements

Application components/collaborations, interfaces, processes/functions/interactions, events, services, data objects; system software, technology interfaces, paths, technology processes/functions/interactions, technology services, components

Implementation and Deployment View Example

The diagram below shows the prototype drawn for the Implementation and Deployment View.

Thank you for following, sharing, liking, and viewing.