Application Layer in ArchiMate Part 1 – Metamodel

Application Layer in ArchiMate Part 1 – Metamodel

The  metamodel  gives an overview of the application layer concepts and their relationships. Many of the concepts have been inspired by the UML 2.0 standard, as this is the dominant language and the de facto standard for describing software applications. 

As I mentioned before, ArchiMate core framework has 3 layers x 3 aspects:

Active Structure Concepts

The main active structure concept for the application layer is the application component. This concept is used to model any structural entity in the application layer:

  • Reusable software components (part of one or more applications)
  • software applications
  • sub-applications
  • information systems

Behavioral Concepts

Behavior at the application layer can be described in a way that is very similar to business layer behavior

Internal Behavior vs External Behavior

Also here, we make a distinction between the external behavior of application components in terms of application services, and the internal behavior of these components; i.e., application functions that realize these services.

Passive Structure Concepts

The passive concept  is a counterpart of the component, which is called a data object. A data object can be seen as a representation of a business object, as a counterpart of the representation concept in the business layer.

Other ArchiMate Resources:

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *