A language for enterprise modelling

Abstract

This chapter explains what the added value of a separate enterprise modelling language is, in addition to more detailed design languages for business processes or software, for instance. It shows the role that such a language can play in model integration. With this in mind, we introduce the concepts of the ArchiMate enterprise modelling language and use practical modelling examples to illustrate how they can be used. Special attention is paid to the relations between concepts. In particular, we show how the relations between different layers or aspects of an architecture can help to gain insight into the alignment between, for example, the business processes and their supporting applications, or the applications and the technical infrastructure.