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We started talking with the idea we should minimise ambiguity in our students’ minds about when and where they should use the ArchiMate box symbols to represent those architecture entities that are named in an architecture method (be it TOGAF or any other method).

This paper is the fourth in a series, edited from our conversation over several months, in which we explore the possibilities of using the ArchiMate language with an architecture method, and in particular with TOGAF. The series consists of the following papers:

• ArchiMate is not just a set of box and line symbols, it has a meta model and philosophy that may or may not match those of any given architecture method. The first paper provides a kind of method maturity model, which you can use to assess the suitability of your architecture method for use with the ArchiMate language.
• The second paper applies the model in the first paper to an example architecture method. It shows that TOGAF supports some ArchiMate distinctions more clearly than others. And that the two approaches feature different kinds of “realisation” transformation.
• The third paper shows that ArchiMate draws a structure-behaviour dividing line in a different place from the ISEB reference model and from the TOGAF meta model. It also explores how people use the term Function loosely and generically where the terms Service, Process, Interface and Component could be used more precisely.
• This paper: Using ArchiMate box shapes to draw diagrams is trivial; it does not mean you are using your chosen architecture method in accord with ArchiMate’s meta model and philosophy. This fourth paper provides the kind of careful entity-by-entity analysis that is needed if you want to use ArchiMate to support your chosen architecture method. Again, TOGAF is the chosen example.

In this paper, we investigate the mapping between ArchiMate’s concepts and TOGAF’s implicit and explicit meta models along the following lines. First, we ask whether TOGAF’s meta model aligns with ArchiMate’s. We investigate the generic, meta meta level of both and go deeper into the business architecture, data architecture, applications architecture and technology architecture as prescribed by TOGAF, to see whether we can express the required TOGAF notions in ArchiMate. We conclude with recommendations to the designers of both ArchiMate and TOGAF.

Graham Berrisford and Marc Lankhorst

http://www.via-nova-architectura.org/artikelen/tijdschrift/using-archimate-with-togaf-2.html