ArchiMate® 3 – Foundation and Practitioner

This unit introduces the foundational knowledge required to understand the purpose and structure of the ArchiMate® language and its role in Enterprise Architecture.

• Introduction to ArchiMate®: Gain an understanding of ArchiMate® as a visual modelling language used to describe, analyse, and communicate enterprise architecture. Learn how it enables consistent representations of architecture across various layers and stakeholders.
• Purpose of Enterprise Architecture: Explore why Enterprise Architecture exists, to address the concerns of stakeholders and guide organisations through business and IT change. Understand how ArchiMate® supports this by offering structure, clarity, and a shared modelling language.
• Key Terminology and Concepts: Become familiar with core definitions such as enterprise, architecture, stakeholder, concern, view, viewpoint, model, and element. These form the building blocks of the ArchiMate® language and help in framing and structuring architecture models.
• Understanding Stakeholders and Concerns: Identify the range of stakeholders involved in architecture work and the importance of addressing their specific concerns. Learn how architecture views are developed to communicate effectively with each stakeholder group.
• ArchiMate® Framework Structure: Understand the layered approach of the ArchiMate® Core Framework, which includes Business, Application, and Technology (including Physical) layers. Explore how the language provides mechanisms to depict relationships and dependencies across these domains.
• Language Elements and Relationships: Study the basic components of ArchiMate® models, including structural and behavioural elements, relationships, composite elements, and connectors, and how they are used to construct meaningful representations of enterprise systems.

By completing this unit, participants will have a foundational grasp of enterprise architecture concepts and the ArchiMate® modelling language, preparing them to interpret and create models that support strategic analysis and decision-making.

This unit introduces the structural foundation of the ArchiMate® modelling language and its core framework, enabling participants to understand how enterprise architectures are organised and represented visually.

• Understanding the Language Hierarchy: Explore the top-level structure of the ArchiMate® language, including the concepts of model, concept, element, and relationship. Learn how these components provide the foundation for building consistent architecture models.
• Core Layers and Aspects: Gain insight into the three main layers of the ArchiMate® Core Language, Business, Application, and Technology, as well as the additional Physical layer. Understand how these layers interact using key relationships such as Serving and Realisation.
• Introduction to the Core and Full Frameworks: Understand the ArchiMate® Core Framework, which classifies elements across three layers and three aspects (Passive Structure, Behaviour, and Active Structure). Learn how the ArchiMate® Full Framework expands this view to include Strategy, Motivation, Implementation, and Physical layers.
• Working with Abstractions: Learn the distinctions between conceptual, logical, and physical abstractions, as well as between internal and external behaviours and structures. Understand why types are modelled rather than instances in enterprise architecture.
• Concepts and Notation: Discover how ArchiMate® separates core modelling concepts from their visual notation. Learn to use nesting and colour coding to highlight relationships and draw attention to specific areas of a model.
• Visual Conventions and Cues: Understand the use of colour to represent different layers, yellow for Business, blue for Application, and green for Technology, and notational cues such as corner shapes and initial letters to distinguish element types.

By the end of this unit, participants will be able to navigate the structural framework of the ArchiMate® language, interpret multilayered models, and use visual cues effectively to communicate complex architectural information.

This unit explains the foundational structure behind the ArchiMate® language, focusing on the generic metamodel that defines the types of elements and their relationships in enterprise architecture models.

• Understanding the Metamodel: Learn what a metamodel is and how it structures the elements used in architecture descriptions. Understand how the ArchiMate® language balances general-purpose modelling concepts with domain-specific requirements.
• Core Elements and Their Hierarchy: Explore the three main types of core elements in ArchiMate, Active Structure, Behaviour, and Passive Structure, and understand how they represent the subjects, actions, and objects within enterprise systems.
• Aspect-Based Structuring: See how these core elements are grouped into aspects, helping modellers frame concerns based on stakeholder needs. Learn how these aspects correspond to natural language constructs such as subject, verb, and object.
• Specialisations of Core Elements: Understand more advanced structural and behavioural concepts, including collaborations, interactions, processes, functions, and events, and how they refine basic modelling elements.
• Motivation and Composite Elements: Distinguish between core architectural components and those that define why the architecture exists. Explore motivation elements (e.g., goals, drivers) and composite elements (e.g., grouping, location) that support context and coherence in architecture models.
• Visual Representation and Notation: Gain familiarity with how core, motivation, and composite elements are depicted, including internal and external structures, services, and events.

By completing this unit, participants will have a clear understanding of the ArchiMate® metamodel, the classification of architecture elements, and how to use core, motivation, and composite concepts to model enterprise systems comprehensively.

This unit introduces the range of relationships available in the ArchiMate® language, enabling participants to model connections between elements and understand how these influence architecture views and decisions.

• Understanding Relationship Types: Learn the core categories of ArchiMate® relationships, Structural, Dependency, Dynamic, and Other, and how each contributes to constructing meaningful models across architecture layers.
• Structural Relationships: Explore relationships that represent static structure, including Realisation, Assignment, Aggregation, and Composition. Understand how these indicate ownership, hierarchy, or responsibility between elements.
• Dependency Relationships: Gain insight into relationships such as Association, Influence, Access, and Serving, which capture usage, impact, or support between architecture components.
• Dynamic Relationships: Model behavioural interactions using Triggering and Flow relationships to represent time-based or resource-based transfers between processes, events, and services.
• Specialisation and Relationship Connectors: Use the Specialisation relationship to model element types and inheritance. Learn how to apply Junctions (AND, OR) to express combined or alternative relationships between multiple elements.
• Deriving Relationships: Understand how indirect relationships can be derived from combinations of direct relationships. Learn how derivation rules support abstraction and impact analysis within architecture models.

By the end of this unit, participants will be able to represent complex interdependencies within their architecture using the full suite of ArchiMate® relationship types and connectors, supporting richer, more precise model development.

This unit focuses on the Motivation aspect of the ArchiMate® language, which captures why an enterprise architecture exists and what drives change within an organisation.

• Purpose of Motivation Modelling: Learn how to model the drivers, goals, and constraints that influence enterprise architecture decisions. Understand how motivational elements guide and justify the design of architectural solutions.
• Motivation Elements and Metamodel: Explore key elements such as Stakeholder, Driver, Assessment, Goal, Outcome, Principle, Requirement, and Constraint. Understand how these elements connect to express strategic intent and influence architectural direction.
• Stakeholders and Drivers: Model the interests and concerns of individuals or groups. Understand how internal and external drivers, such as customer satisfaction or regulatory change, shape enterprise goals and actions.
• Goals, Outcomes, and Assessments: Define what stakeholders aim to achieve and assess the organisation’s current state in relation to those aims. Model both qualitative intentions (goals) and measurable results (outcomes).
• Principles, Requirements, and Constraints: Describe the properties and rules that govern architecture. Use these elements to express how solutions should behave and what limitations must be respected.
• Meaning and Value: Capture the interpretation and perceived importance of architecture elements from a stakeholder’s perspective. This supports stakeholder engagement and positioning architecture with business priorities.
• Motivation Relationships and Views: Understand how motivation elements relate to each other and to core architecture elements. Learn to apply various viewpoints such as the Stakeholder View, Goal Realisation View, and Requirements Realisation View to communicate intent and rationale effectively.

By the end of this unit, participants will be able to model the reasoning and strategic direction behind enterprise architecture decisions, supporting traceability from business objectives to implementation.

This unit introduces the Strategy Layer of the ArchiMate® language, which models how an organisation defines and executes its strategic direction.

• Modelling Strategy and Capabilities: Learn to represent key strategic concepts such as resources, capabilities, value streams, and courses of action. These elements describe what an organisation has, what it can do, how it delivers value, and how it plans to achieve its goals.
• Connecting Strategy to Execution: Understand how strategy elements link to motivation and core layers, supporting business objectives and the capabilities that enable them. Participants will explore how value is delivered through structured value streams and how capabilities are realised through business and application behaviours.
• Visualising Strategic Plans: Participants will develop the ability to create clear models of strategy using viewpoints like the Strategy View, Capability Map, and Outcome Realisation, supporting better planning and communication of strategic intent.

By completing this unit, participants will gain the ability to model strategic plans, capabilities, and value creation in a structured and consistent way, supporting strategic analysis and enterprise decision-making.

This unit covers the Business Layer of the ArchiMate® language, focusing on how to model organisational structure, business behaviour, and value delivery.

• Understanding the Business Layer: Learn to model the internal structure of an organisation, including actors, roles, collaborations, and interfaces that represent how business services are accessed and performed.
• Modelling Behaviour and Products: Explore how business processes, functions, and interactions deliver services in response to events. Understand how these behaviours are supported by business objects and governed by contracts and representations. Products are modelled as packages of services and resources offered to customers.
• Building Business-Focused Views: Participants will gain the skills to visualise how people, processes, and systems work together to create and deliver value, using standard viewpoints to communicate business structure and operations effectively.

By completing this unit, participants will be able to model and analyse the structural and behavioural elements of a business, supporting clarity in service delivery, organisational design, and value creation.

This unit focuses on the Application Layer of the ArchiMate® language, which models the structure, behaviour, and data of software applications that support business functions.

• Understanding Application Architecture: Learn how to represent application components, services, and their interactions. Application components perform automated behaviours, often grouped into collaborations, and expose functionality through defined interfaces.
• Modelling Behaviour and Services: Application functions, processes, and interactions describe how software performs specific tasks or workflows. These behaviours result in application services, units of functionality offered to users or other systems. Events represent triggers or occurrences that initiate application behaviours.
• Handling Data Objects: Use data objects to model structured information used or produced by applications. These can be visualised in cooperation and usage views to show how data flows through systems.
• Visualising Application Structure: Participants will learn to create integrated views that illustrate how business processes interact with application services and data, supporting effective design, integration, and automation of enterprise systems.

By completing this unit, participants will understand how to model the internal workings and external interfaces of application systems, supporting clearer system design, integration, and automation.

This unit explores the Technology Layer of the ArchiMate® language, which models the infrastructure and system software that enable application and business services.

• Understanding Technology Modelling: Learn how to represent both physical and logical infrastructure components such as devices, system software, nodes, and communication networks. These elements describe the environment in which applications are executed and data is processed or transferred.
• Modelling Behaviour and Services: Use technology behaviour elements, functions, processes, interactions, services, and events, to describe how infrastructure supports automated tasks and system-level operations. Understand how these behaviours deliver services that support applications and ultimately the business.
• Representing Artefacts: The artifact element captures deployable or operational assets, such as data files, configuration items, or executable software, which are crucial to system functioning.
• Building Coherent Infrastructure Views: By applying relevant viewpoints, participants will learn to model how technology components interact and support the application layer. This enables clear visualisation of system architecture, deployment strategies, and IT infrastructure planning.

By completing this unit, participants will be able to model infrastructure elements, behaviours, and services in a structured way, supporting reliable, scalable, and maintainable enterprise systems.

This unit introduces the Physical Elements of the ArchiMate® language, which allow architects to model tangible infrastructure and resources involved in material production, movement, or transformation.

• Understanding Physical Modelling: Learn how to represent real-world assets such as equipment, facilities, and distribution networks, and understand their role within the broader enterprise architecture.
• Modelling Structure and Behaviour: Physical elements like equipment and facilities are used to model operational infrastructure, while distribution networks represent physical paths for transporting materials or energy. Though the physical domain does not define separate behaviour elements, technology behaviour elements are reused to capture physical processes.
• Representing Materials and Resources: The material element allows architects to represent physical substances used or produced by business or technology functions, linking physical and digital systems within the model.
• Connecting the Physical World to Architecture: Participants will learn to incorporate physical elements into enterprise models, supporting integrated views that span physical infrastructure, IoT systems, and digital transformation initiatives.

By completing this unit, participants will understand how to model the physical world within enterprise architecture, supporting comprehensive views that connect technology, infrastructure, and material flows.

This unit focuses on how to model the relationships between the Business, Application, and Technology Layers of the ArchiMate® language, enabling participants to create integrated, multi-layered architecture models.

• Understanding Cross-Layer Relationships: Learn how to represent the dependencies and interactions between layers using two primary relationships, Serving and Realisation. These are used consistently to link business processes to applications, and applications to the supporting technology infrastructure.
• Practical Use of Relationships: Serving relationships describe how services in one layer support functions or roles in another. Realisation relationships show how higher-level functions are delivered by lower-level components. These links ensure that architectural elements are connected from strategy to execution.
• Derived Relationships: Explore how indirect relationships between layers can be inferred using derivation rules. For example, a technology object may be shown to realise a business object indirectly through intermediate layers.
• Integrated Modelling for Clarity: By understanding and applying these relationships, participants will be able to build models that reveal how business needs are supported by systems and infrastructure, providing clearer traceability and support across the enterprise.

By completing this unit, participants will be able to model and analyse how enterprise layers are interlinked, supporting business objectives, application services, and the underlying technology landscape.

This unit covers the Implementation and Migration Layer of the ArchiMate® language, focusing on how to model the transition from a current architecture to a future state.

• Understanding Implementation and Migration Modelling: Learn how to represent and structure change initiatives using key concepts such as work packages, deliverables, events, plateaus, and gaps. These elements allow architects to visualise project activities, state transitions, and the outcomes of transformation efforts.
• Key Modelling Elements: Work packages define time-bound actions aimed at delivering change. Deliverables represent the outputs of these efforts, while implementation events capture significant changes that affect or trigger progress. Plateaus describe stable architectural states over time, and gaps identify the differences between these states, highlighting what needs to change.
• Integrating Change into Architecture Models: Understand how to connect implementation and migration elements with motivation and core layers to ensure planned change is clearly traceable to strategic objectives and architectural structures.
• Applying Viewpoints for Transformation Planning: Use viewpoints such as the Project Viewpoint, Migration Viewpoint, and Implementation and Migration Viewpoint to communicate plans, map transitions, and structure initiatives in a way that is meaningful for stakeholders.

By completing this unit, participants will be able to model and plan enterprise transformation effectively, bridging strategy and execution through structured change modelling.

This unit introduces the ArchiMate® viewpoint mechanism, which allows architects to create targeted views that address specific stakeholder concerns and conform to the ISO/IEC 42010 standard.

• Understanding Views, Viewpoints, and Stakeholders: Learn the difference between a view (what is seen in the model) and a viewpoint (the position or concern from which it is seen). A viewpoint defines the purpose, content, and techniques used to construct a view that speaks directly to the needs of stakeholders, whether individuals, teams, or organisations.
• Creating Targeted Architecture Views: Discover how architects can define and apply viewpoints to generate meaningful representations of the architecture. These views selectively show elements and relationships from the ArchiMate® metamodel that are most relevant to the stakeholder’s concerns.
• Standards and Classification: The ArchiMate® viewpoint mechanism satisfies ISO/IEC 42010 and categorises viewpoints based on their purpose (designing, deciding, or informing) and content (detail, coherence, or overview). This ensures each view is both purposeful and appropriate to its audience, ranging from technical specialists to executive leadership.
• Practical Application in Modelling: By applying the viewpoint mechanism, participants will learn how to construct views that improve communication, clarify stakeholder expectations, and support decision-making throughout architecture initiatives.

By completing this unit, participants will be equipped to design and apply architecture views that communicate effectively with diverse stakeholders, ensuring their concerns are understood and addressed in the modelling process.

This unit explores how the ArchiMate® language can be customised to support domain-specific modelling needs, offering additional flexibility and expressiveness beyond the standard metamodel.

• Purpose of Language Customisation: Learn how to adapt the ArchiMate® language for specific industries, tools, or organisational needs. Customisation supports enhanced communication, detailed analysis, and accurate representation of sector-specific architectures.
• Adding Attributes to Concepts and Relationships: Discover how to enrich standard ArchiMate® elements and relationships by assigning attributes, also referred to as properties in some modelling tools. These attributes add descriptive detail to models, enhancing their clarity and usefulness.
• Using Profiles: Understand how profiles can be used to apply structured attributes to elements. Explore pre-defined profiles and user-defined profiles, which can be dynamically applied without altering the core ArchiMate® specification.
• Creating Specialised Elements and Relationships: Learn how to define new types of elements or relationships through specialisation. Specialised elements inherit the characteristics of their base types, enabling users to represent unique concepts, such as industry-specific actors, services, or artefacts, while maintaining consistency with the standard language.
• Applications of Customisation: See practical examples of specialisation across all ArchiMate® layers, including Business, Application, Technology, Physical, Strategy, Motivation, and Implementation. Understand how to use these elements in contexts such as risk modelling or process refinement.

By completing this unit, participants will be equipped to customise the ArchiMate® language to better reflect their unique organisational context, while still adhering to its structured modelling principles.

This unit involves the ArchiSurance case study, which is a comprehensive, fictional scenario designed for practical application of the ArchiMate® modelling language in the context of the TOGAF® framework.

• Context and Purpose: ArchiSurance is a merged insurance company navigating both rationalisation and digital transformation. The case study presents real-world challenges such as infrastructure consolidation and a strategic shift toward digital customer intimacy using Big Data and IoT.
• Applying ArchiMate® Across TOGAF® Phases: The case study maps directly to the TOGAF® Architecture Development Method (ADM), progressing through all key phases:
  • Architecture Vision (Phase A): Identifies key stakeholders, drivers, goals, and guiding principles.
  • Business Architecture (Phase B): Includes organisation views, value streams, capability maps, business processes, and requirements.
  • Information Systems Architectures (Phase C): Covers application and data architecture baselines and targets, usage, behaviour, and information flow.
  • Technology Architecture (Phase D): Models current and future infrastructure, including IoT integration.
  • Opportunities and Solutions / Migration Planning (Phases E & F): Develops migration and project views that reflect a phased transformation.
• Modelling Techniques and Outputs: Participants analyse and produce views including gap analyses, capability and resource mappings, goal refinement, and solution concepts. Each modelling output supports structured thinking and clear communication of architectural change.

By completing this unit, participants will gain hands-on experience applying ArchiMate® in a realistic transformation scenario, reinforcing their ability to model, assess, and communicate architecture across business and technology domains.

This unit involves the ArchiMetal case study, which includes the practical use of the ArchiMate® language to model enterprise transformation within a manufacturing business.

• Strategic Context and Objectives: ArchiMetal is a European steel manufacturer undertaking a major transformation to support expansion into the automotive market. This includes a CRM implementation to improve customer service, order tracking, and production planning.
• Modelling Enterprise Transformation: Participants explore how ArchiMate® is used to represent the baseline and target states across business, application, and technology layers. The case study covers structural changes, new business processes, and the integration of CRM capabilities, providing insight into how architecture supports change initiatives.
• Integrated Planning and Migration: Models of work packages, deliverables, and implementation events show how transformation efforts are structured and sequenced. Participants also engage with stakeholder concerns and analyse how architectural elements shift across migration stages.

By completing this unit, participants gain applied experience in using ArchiMate® to design, assess, and communicate enterprise change, strengthening their ability to manage complexity and deliver strategic outcomes. ArchiMate® certification exams and use the language in real-world architecture engagements.