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ArchiMate cheat sheet — every element, by layer and aspect

All 60 elements of ArchiMate® 3.2 in one grid, placed by the two questions that decide where an element belongs.

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The framework

Layer answers whom it serves · aspect answers what kind of thing it is.

Motivation

why — its own aspect

Stakeholder, Driver, Assessment, Goal, Outcome, Principle, Requirement, Constraint, Meaning, Value

Strategy

what we must be able to do

Active structure — who or what does it Resource
Behaviour — what is done Capability, Value Stream, Course of Action
Passive structure — what it is done to —

Business

what the organisation does for its customers

Active structure — who or what does it Business Actor, Business Role, Business Collaboration, Business Interface
Behaviour — what is done Business Process, Business Function, Business Interaction, Business Event, Business Service
Passive structure — what it is done to Business Object, Contract, Representation, Product †

Application

what software does for the business

Active structure — who or what does it Application Component, Application Collaboration, Application Interface
Behaviour — what is done Application Function, Application Interaction, Application Process, Application Event, Application Service
Passive structure — what it is done to Data Object

Technology

what infrastructure does for software

Active structure — who or what does it Node, Device, System Software, Technology Collaboration, Technology Interface, Path, Communication Network
Behaviour — what is done Technology Function, Technology Process, Technology Interaction, Technology Event, Technology Service
Passive structure — what it is done to Artifact

Physical

part of Technology, not a layer of its own

Active structure — who or what does it Equipment, Facility, Distribution Network
Behaviour — what is done — uses Technology behaviour
Passive structure — what it is done to Material

Implementation & Migration

how we get there

Active structure — who or what does it —
Behaviour — what is done Work Package, Implementation Event
Passive structure — what it is done to Deliverable, Plateau ‡, Gap ‡

Composite

no layer of their own

Grouping — anything that belongs together, Location — where elements sit or behaviour happens

† Product is composite, not passive structure: it aggregates services and passive elements across layers, under a contract. Most cheat sheets file it wrongly. ‡ Plateau aggregates core elements as they stand at one point in time; Gap states the difference between two plateaus.

Relationships

11 + junction.

Structural — static coherence

  • Compositionthe part cannot exist without the whole
  • Aggregationgroups parts that can exist alone
  • Assignmentwho performs it, where it runs
  • Realizationthe concrete one delivers the abstract one

Dependency — one needs another

  • Servingprovides its functionality to another
  • Accessreads, writes or deletes a passive element
  • Influenceaffects a motivation element, for or against
  • Associationa link the language has no word for

Dynamic — something moves

  • Triggeringthis then that — order in time
  • Flowsomething is transferred — data, money, goods

Other & connector

  • Specializationis a particular kind of
  • Junctionand / or — joins relationships of one type
The derivation rule — the one worth memorising. A chain of relationships pointing the same way can be replaced by the weakest link in the chain. That is how a diagram stays readable when you zoom out. 
composition › aggregation › assignment › realization › serving › access › influence › association

Three pairs that get confused

Assignment vs realization. Assignment allocates a performer — an actor does a process. Realization says something concrete delivers something abstract — a process provides a service.

Serving vs flow. Serving is a standing offer: it is available to you. Flow is one actual transfer during one run.

Composition vs aggregation. A composed part dies with its whole and has exactly one whole. An aggregated part survives on its own and may belong to several.

Reading the sheet

Placing an element — two questions

1. Whom does it serve? That is the layer. Technology serves applications, applications serve the business, the business serves its customers. 2. What kind of thing is it? Active structure does something, behaviour is what is done, passive structure is what it is done to.

Internal or external — the pair people miss

Every layer repeats the same pair. A Service is the outward face of behaviour — what others may use. An Interface is the outward face of active structure — where they reach it. Everything else in the layer is internal, and no one outside should depend on it.

Reading the notation

Colour is convention, not specification — yellow business, blue application, green technology, purple motivation, tan strategy, pink implementation. The small icon in the top-right corner of a box carries the actual element type; a rounded box is behaviour, a square one is structure.

About this sheet

Made with Transitrix — an open method for describing a company as text · transitrix.com

Element set per the ArchiMate® 3.2 Specification. ArchiMate is a registered trademark of The Open Group.

More sheets: transitrix.com/library