The document discusses extracting ArchiMate views from custom ontological enterprise architecture (EA) models. It provides context on the challenges of dealing with EA, including reconciling information from different domains and tools. It then introduces the ArchiMate standard and modeling language for representing EA diagrams. The document describes how a plugin for the Archi modeling tool allows importing an organization's custom EA ontological model in order to automatically generate compliant ArchiMate views for reporting and representation in standard EA tools.

1.  Author: Matteo Busanelli
Enterprise Architecture Standard Representation
EXTRACTING ARCHIMATE® VIEWS FROM
CUSTOM ONTOLOGICAL EA MODELS

2. From our experience
 Dealing with EA means to deal with:
 Different knowledge domains
(Business, IT, Infrastracture, PM etc…)
 Several specialized frameworks/methodologies
(COBIT, TOGAF, ITIL, PMBOK etc…)
 Many Organizational units and people
 Several domain specific Tools and information silos
 Many information formats
 Frequently EA needs to reconciliate heterogeneous
informations to govern and drive change
management and improve Business-IT alignment
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 2

3. Context overview (1/2)
Business
PM
IT EA Domain
Infrastructure
produces formalized
Company
feeds
EA Ontological
Model
to support
Existing sources &
Different formats
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 3

4. Overview of the context (2/2)
Business
PM EA tool
IT EA Domain proprietary solution
Infrastructure
Reporting / EA
produces
Representation
formalized
standard solution
EA Standard
Company representation
feeds
EA Ontological model
Model
Compliant Compliant . .. Compliant
tool #1 tool #2 tool #n
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 4

5. The Open Group Standard
ArchiMate 2.0 ®
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models

6. ArchiMate 2.0®
From the official Open Group definition document:
 "To provide a uniform representation for diagrams that describe enterprise
architectures, the ArchiMate enterprise architecture modeling language has
been developed. It offers an integrated architectural approach that
describes and visualizes the different architecture domains and their
underlying relations and dependencies."
 "The role of the ArchiMate standard is to provide a graphical language for
the representation of enterprise architectures over time (i.e., including
transformation and migration planning), as well as their motivation and
rationale. The evolution of the standard is closely linked to the
developments of the TOGAF standard and the emerging results from The
Open Group forums and work groups active in this area. As a consequence, the
ArchiMate standard does not provide its own set of defined terms, but
rather follows those provided by the TOGAF standard."
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 6

7. ArchiMate 2.0®
 Is an abstract model for representing EA from different viewpoints
 A standard for exchanging and sharing EA diagrams aligned with TOGAF
 Performs cost analysis and business case calculations
 Implemented by different commercial and open EA tools
 Used by Bank of Italy as a language for describing IT Architectures
(from “Enterprise Architecture – La prospettiva di Banca d’Italia” speech part of 2012 ABI Lab
workshop on EA 1)
1. http://www.abilab.it/eventi/workshop-architetture-it-2012
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models

8. ArchiMate 2.0 - Business Layer concepts
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 8

9. ArchiMate 2.0 - Application Layer concepts
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 9

10. ArchiMate 2.0 - Technology Layer concepts
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 10

11. ArchiMate 2.0 - Relationships
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 11

12. ArchiMate 2.0 - Motivation Extension
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 12

13. ArchiMate 2.0 – Some examples of EA views
Vista Business Strategic
EA
Technical
viewpoint
Applicative
viewpoint
EA Transition
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 13

14. An ArchiMate 2.0 modelling tool: Archi
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 14

15. Archi – Summary of features
 Free open source tool developed and maintained by the Institute
of Educational Cybernetics of University of Bolton (latest release
of November, 2012)
 Creation of diagrams (views) by using the complete
ArchiMate 2.0 components palette
 All graphical components are classified according to the Business, Applicative and Technology Layers.
 Allows new model template definition
 Allows EA components to be customized (i.e. custom attributes)
 All diagram exportable in different output formats
 Extendable by plug-ins
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 15

16. Archi: some screenshots
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 16

17. Automatic generation of ArchiMate
diagrams from EA ontological models:
AOI Plugin
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 17

18. An approach starting from a custom company model of EA
Business App Interface
application App Component
process
Device
Data
Flow Device
IT service Business Service
ArchiMate
Ontology Import
Plug-in
Company EA ArchiMate 2.0 ®
ON TIME
Ontological Model MAPPING (SPARQL) Ontological Model IMPORT
(OWL/RDF) (OWL/RDF)
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 18

19. ArchiMate Ontology Importer Plug-in
 ArchiMate Ontology Importer (AOI) is an ARCHI PLUG-IN developed and mantained
by Imola Informatica that can import ArchiMate 2.0 compliant ontologies (in
OWL/RDF/N3 format) into Archi diagrams.
 Developed plug-in features:
 Import of all Business Layer Components
 Import of all Application Layer Components
 Import of all Technology Layer Components
 Import of all Motivation Layer Components
 Generation of different kind of relationship views
 Generation of predefined base diagrams (i.e Applications Flow View)
 Generation of several hierarchical grouping views (i.e Application for Functional Domains )
 Some advanced automatic layout functionality
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 19

20. AOI Plug-in: Post import example
Application
organized for
Functional Area
and Company
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 20

21. AOI Plug-in: current applications & future works
• AOI Plug-in is a BETA version and still under development/testing
• the plugin was tested on Archi release 2.2.2 and 2.3
• the exploited Archimate Model (ontology) is compliant to Archimate 2.0
model.
• Application on real domains:
• tested on IT Architecture assets of a big Italian insurance group
• tested on Business and IT architecture assets of a Bank from northern Italy
• Future work:
 optimization of automatic layout algorithm
 update of already imported models
 import of all the custom property defined for the components
 …
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 21

22. References
 OpenGroup Archimate
 http://www.opengroup.org/subjectareas/enterprise/archimate
 http://www.opengroup.org/archimate/
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ArchiMate
 TOGAF
 http://www.opengroup.org/togaf/
 https://www2.opengroup.org/ogsys/catalog/w118
 ARCHI
 http://archi.cetis.ac.uk/
 http://archi.cetis.ac.uk/download.html
 ABI Lab - EA Workshop 2012
 http://www.abilab.it/eventi/workshop-architetture-it-2012
Extracting Archimate® views from custom ontological EA models 22

23.  Più di 20 anni di esperienza nell’Enterprise IT
 Consulenza e Skill Transfer suCompany for Integrazione30Processo
Consulting & Innovation Architetture, more than e years
 OMG Influence Member, JSR 312 Expert
Group, CSI, WWISA, OpenESB Key Partner, NetBeans Strategic Partner
Matteo Busanelli
Semantic Web Architect and
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IT Consultant Imola
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