In this presentation I'm going to share our experience of using ArchiMate and Sparx Systems
Enterprise Architect. We've been working with a large number of customers from different market
sectors. All of whom are using ArchiMate to document our Enterprise Architecture and
understand the complex dependencies between their people, business processes, software applications,
data and hardware. In this presentation I will first introduce ArchiMate and then look at how
it relates to TOGAF. Then show you some example viewpoints from the ArchiMate; a Business Layer,
Application Layer, Technology Layer and the Motivation Extension. First of all to take a
look at the ArchiMate framework. ArchiMate is a technical standard developed by the Open Group.
Who are an independent technology consortium. ArchiMate is a graphical language for modeling
Enterprise Architectures. As you can see from this diagram the ArchiMate framework splits into three
core layers; the Business Layer, Application Layer and Technology Layer. The Business Layer allows
us to model a Business Organization, Business Processes, Services and Products. The Application
Layer allows us to document our Application Landscape and understand dependencies between
these applications. The Technology Layer allows us to cataloger Infrastructure all of our hardware,
software and networks. Each of these layers is further subdivided into Active Structure,
Behavior and Passive Structure Elements. This allows us to describe our enterprise
in sentences such as. Who provides the services that offer value to our customers. There are also
two extensions to the ArchiMate framework. The Motivation Extension allows us to take
a more strategic view on our project identifying stakeholders, drivers,
goals and requirements. The Implementation and Migration Extension allows us to plan projects,
identifying work packages and deliverables. So how does ArchiMate relate to TOGAF.
ArchiMate has evolved to become fully aligned with the Open Groups architecture framework TOGAF.
As you can see from our color coding the ArchiMate 8 Business Layer maps directly to phase B in
TOGAF. The Application Layer maps to phase C in TOGAF. The Technology Layer maps to phase D.
To graph the Motivation Extension allows us to cover the architecture vision, requirements management
and change management aspects of TOGAF. The Implementation and Migration Extension completes
the picture. TOGAF has become very widely used throughout the IT industry and ArchiMate allows
us to capture and communicate to graph concepts visually. ArchiMate is built into all editions
of Enterprise Architect from the desktop Edition through Professional, Corporate and all the way
up to the Ultimate Edition. As you can see here. We can select the ArchiMate 2 category
of diagrams and we have access to Business Layer diagrams, Application, Technology, Motivation and
Implementation and Migration. So the ArchiMate to is supported through a set of diagram types
and associated tool boxes that allow us to easily create all of the different ArchiMate elements.
In the Project Browser we can set up a folder structure to create a library of reusable
ArchiMate elements. We can then easily drag and drop these elements onto diagrams. To click the
various ArchiMate viewpoints. I'm going to show you a few examples of these standard ArchiMate
viewpoints. We'll start with the Organization viewpoint in the Business Layer. This is one
of the most commonly used ArchiMate viewpoints. It documents the internal Organization Structure
and its capabilities in the middle. We can see a hierarchy of Business Actors. Our overall Flower
Power company is broken down into a number of departments or business units. Namely we have
Nursery Staff, a Distribution Team and a Sales Department and each of these Business Actors
can be assigned to a number of different Business Rules. Over on the left hand side of our diagram
for example the Nursery Staff are responsible for growing the flowers and managing the stock.
Likewise we have assigned our business actors to locations on the right-hand side to identify
where certain staff are physically located. In this example our Distribution Team is in
a central warehouse, where our Sales Staff are out in regional sales centers. Even at this stage when
we've just started to populate our model with some Business Layer elements and relationships.
We can use Enterprise Architects Relationship Matrix to create a mapping, that allows us to
cross-reference model elements. For example here we've created a matrix profile to show all of the
business actors mapped to business roles. This is a great way to communicate information very
succinctly and to check our model for accuracy and completeness. If there are any empty rules or
columns this may indicate that we're missing some model information. For example the retail company
business actor should be assigned to the retailer business role. We can actually use the matrix to
add this relationship just by right-clicking on the sale and creating a new argument to
relationship. The Business Process Viewpoint is also a very popular ArchiMate viewpoint.
It identifies the top level business processes for each role within a department and it shows
how it offer services to external parties such as customers, suppliers and partners. For example the
Flower Sales role within the Sales Department is set to carry out the Sale Flowers Business
Process. This business process breaks down into three smaller sub processes recording; the orders,
reserving stock and dispatching flowers. The first of these is triggered whenever customer orders are
received. The set of business processes offer some valuable services to our external retailer,
who is our customer an argument we tend to focus on. Identifying business processes and
understanding how these tie into the rest of our Enterprise Architecture at a high level
of abstraction. Of course companies are also keen to explore business processes in much more detail
and this can be done with a set of hierarchical BPMN diagrams for each of our business processes.
To show the activities, the decision points, the events and responsibilities. The beauty of using
Enterprise Architect is that not only does it support ArchiMate but it also fully supports
BPMN version 2. This means that we can have business processes identified in our architecture
models and also have BPMN diagrams containing the internal detailed description of these processes.
We can link from our architectural models to the detailed models using Composite Elements. I can
take a Sales process. I can right-click and I can add a child diagram, which is a Composite
Diagram. Go and find the appropriate BPMN model. Select BPMN diagram, click OK. You'll see a little
symbol appear to indicate that the sub process is now connected to accomplish a diagram. I can
now double click on the process and go down and view the appropriate BPMN diagram. The Product
Viewpoint in the Business Layer allows us to package up a set of services into named product
for which we will have a supporting contract. Then we can start to analyze the value that product
offers to our customer. For example our Customer Account Product allows members to receive in this
case to Obtain Free Delivery. Moving on to the Application Layer. We can take a look at the
Application Cooperation Viewpoint. You'll notice that the color of the elements has changed.
In Enterprise Architect all of the Business Layer elements are color-coded yellow. The Application
Layer elements are a pale blue and the Technology Layer elements are green. This viewpoint allows us
to understand our software application landscape, define interfaces and look at the dependencies
between the applications. You may notice that the notation here is very similar to UML. In the
UML Notation for components and interfaces. This is entirely intentional. The designers
of ArchiMate were very careful to align their notation with UML. Whenever this was possible.
This means that developers already understanding UML will have left no difficulty understanding
the application and technology ArchiMate models. It also means the ArchiMate and UML diagrams can
coexist in the same Enterprise Architect model. With ArchiMate diagrams explaining the high-level
overall architecture and the UML diagrams used to explore the detailed and terminal design
for each component. Again you could make your Application Component into a composite element,
so that you can navigate down into a UML diagram. We will do this with our Stock Control System.
We'll add a child diagram that is a Composite Structure Diagram. This time we will look for
the appropriate UML diagram. In this case it's Class diagram showing the detailed elements
within the Store Control Application Component. Each of our ArchiMate elements can be documented
in much more detail. In a Properties dialog, so behind each element we can open up the properties
dialog. We can add a textual description to the Notes area within the Properties dialog. We can
set some standard properties such as Author, Version and phases. In addition we can also
define our own custom type values to capture extra information of interest to our company.
For example if I open up the Tag Values page. We can see, we've recorded the Vendor Release Date
and Version of each of our software applications. If we want to see that information on a diagram,
we can right click on the component. We can add an attached note to the component and then if
we right-click or the line that attaches the two. We can link this note to pull out the tag values
onto the diagram. Down in the Technology Layer we can take a look at an Infrastructure Viewpoint,
which allows us to catalogue all of our hardware and system software and to show the communication
channels between them. Here we have a client workstation, which is using a desktop PC and
running a Windows Operating System connected through a LAN and a Router to an Application
Server. Optionally you can also show the physical location of the hardware. So that you understand,
where the hardware is located. That can influence your choice of communication mechanism.
As we start to populate our Business, Application and Technology Layers, we can also create what's
known as a Layered Viewpoint seeing the full whole architecture top to bottom. To create this view
point and we could simply drag and drop one of our elements from our catalog from our library. I am
on to a diagram for example the Retailer element and then if we right-click on that element.
We can insert related elements and this allows us to see any elements that are directly connected
to the Retailer. We can actually choose to go up to five levels deep and simply select the elements
that we would like to add to our diagram. This allows us to very quickly create a Traceability
Diagram. This Layered Viewpoint is very powerful, say we wish to replace some hardware or one of the
software applications. We can very quickly create a layered Traceability diagram to work out the
impact of our decision. Is this a change the only effects, are very few people working in one single
department? Or is it something that's going to affect lots of roles across multiple departments.
Finally let's take a look at a Stakeholder viewpoint. This is using the ArchiMate Motivation
Extension and it allows us to take more of a strategic view of our business and to capture
the motivation for the business change. On the left have identified some stakeholders and then
we've started to look at their drivers. Some of the drivers that may influence their core
drivers. We can then assess the company's position in relation to these drivers and
identify opportunities. Where we can improve and agree our company goals. In version 11 of
Enterprise Architect we've introduced some nice graphs and charts and we've used these here,
because they very much appeal to senior management. Here we have plotted the status
of our goals, so that we can immediately get a management summary of progress on our project.
Hopefully this presentation has given you a flavor of the peril of
Enterprise Architect to assist you and documenting and communicating
your Enterprise Architecture - using a set of ArchiMate diagrams. Thank you.