ArchiMate

ArchiMate has become the standard language for describing and visualizing EA models involving different domains. It has been designed to provide a complete graphical representation of EAs over time and is closely linked to TOGAF standard. ArchiMate is a visual language with concepts for specifying inter-related architectures and specific viewpoints for selected stakeholders. ArchiMate is defined in one metamodel as small as possible, but sufficient enough to fulfill most of EA modeling tasks. This is achieved because ArchiMate metamodel includes concepts that cover most of the practical modeling cases. The ArchiMate metamodel incorporates three kinds of elements:

1. Active structure elements, which are concepts that perform behavior (e.g., Business Actor);
2. Behavior elements, which are concepts that represents activity units (e.g., Business Process); and
3. Passive structure elements, which are passive entities manipulated through behavior elements (e.g., Business Object).

In addition, ArchiMate metamodel divides its concepts into three layers aligned with TOGAF's architectures. The business layer provides concepts that are supported on business processes from the enterprise. The application layer gives necessary support to the business layer through application components and services. The technology layer provides required infrastructure needed to execute software application.

iArchiMate uses the ArchiMate metamodel presented in the following figure.