Bas van Gils & Sven van Dijk

So, you’ve had your training courses and read the relevant books.Your boss has called you and asked: “Now let’s discuss our major concerns. How can we make the architecture approach going to work while everybody is always on the run?”….. Sounds familiar? 

In this post we continue to describe examples for ArchiMate modeling using a top-down modeling strategy. In the previous posting we presented some examples from the business architecture domain, in this posting we will cover three example…

In the previous posting we explained two strategies for getting started with ArchiMate modeling: top-down and bottom-up. Over-simplifying, we suggested to use “inventory style” models (to catalog the ‘things we have / do’) and then figuring out the relations between them. There’s usually a lot of information that can be (re)used. Also, the ideal approach is using a workshop setting.  

So I got my ArchiMate® certification… now what? Does that sound familiar at all? We see a lot of organizations and professionals struggle with the questions on how to get started with their enterprise architecture models. This makes sense: there’s an overwhelming amount of practical guidance (often piecemeal, though) available online, the pressure might be on (there is a lot of places where we expect ArchiMate models to add value) and the company has just invested in training and tooling (Check out our flagship tool, BiZZdesign Architect).

We are continuing our series on ArchiMate: from theory to practice! We introduced the series back in October and over the last few months we ran the first part which we called “The ArchiMate Files”. In this first part we covered some theoretic underpinnings of the ArchiMate standard, and in this second series we will cover practical aspects of modeling with ArchiMate. This is illustrated in the updated diagram below:

This is the seventh posting in our series on using ArchiMate in practice. So far we have considered the mind of the architect as well as several ‘fundamentals’ in the language: the structure / behavior dichotomy, three layers, internal / external aspects of each domain, specialization, and the use of views & viewpoints. In this posting we will discuss some ‘philosophical’ and practical issues that you may run into when using ArchiMate.

In this series, we have discussed various aspects of the ArchiMate modeling language using a “first principles” approach. We have covered structure vs. behavior, the three layers, (with internal / external aspects), the use of specialization, and so on. A key issue that we have often discussed is the distinction between the (mental) model of the modeler (i.e. the architect) and the visualizations that he or she creates for stakeholders in the organization. In this posting we will elaborate on that aspect.

This is the fifth posting in our series on using ArchiMate in practice. The goal of this posting is to come to grips with the use of specialization in architecture models. We discuss the main idea as well as implications and benefits.

This is the fourth posting in our series on using ArchiMate in practice. The goal of this posting is to come to grips with the structure of the language, building on the previous posting where we considered the structure vs. behavior aspects. …