ArchiMate (business layer) and its relation to BPMN
ArchiMate is an enterprise-architecture modelling language and a standard of The Open Group, developed by its ArchiMate Forum. It describes business processes, organisational structure, information flows, IT systems and technical infrastructure in one language.
Layers
| Layer | Contains |
|---|---|
| Business | Actors, roles, services, processes, information |
| Application | Application components and services |
| Technology | Nodes, system software, networks |
| Strategy, motivation, implementation | Capabilities, goals, work packages (cross-cutting) |
Its power is the relationships between layers: which application supports which business process, which data it uses, which infrastructure it runs on.
ArchiMate vs BPMN
| ArchiMate | BPMN | |
|---|---|---|
| Question | How does the process fit the enterprise (systems, data, capabilities)? | What are the exact steps, decisions and message flows? |
| Level of process detail | Coarse (a process, its sub-processes, simple flows) | Fine (events, gateways, exceptions) |
| Audience | Architects, planners | Analysts, developers |
Use ArchiMate to place a process in the landscape and BPMN to detail it. They are complementary; neither replaces the other. See bpmn-2-dot-0 and process-architecture-and-governance.
Version
The Open Group overview page still names ArchiMate 3.1; publishers report 3.2 as released in October 2022. Check opengroup.org for the current release.
The Open Group’s Project Harmony produced white papers on using ArchiMate together with TOGAF.
Related
epc-and-aris, BPM hub, dmn-and-cmmn
Sources
- The Open Group, ArchiMate overview: https://www.opengroup.org/archimate-forum/archimate-overview
- ArchiMate 3.2 Specification listing (publisher): https://www.vanharen.net/?p=4262