A Business Model Canvas (BMC) can be modeled with ArchiMate as shown below. BMC canvases can be created with any of those EA modelling tools that support ArchiMate, such as Archi or Sparx EA. This version below is modelled by using ArchiMate Business and Motivation elements. ArchiMate Business Layer elements are covering the most of the BMC concepts, but the most important concept, the “Value”, is one of the Motivation -elements of ArchiMate.
This is the basic form of the Business Model Canvas (BMC) by A. Osterwalder, but it can be variated according to what is appropriate. There are also versioned approaches such as “Service Model Canvas” or “Lean Canvas”. A BMC can be used e.g. for business model design and innovation.
Modeling a BMC with ArchiMate “facilitates tracing of requirements from business demands down to the design specifications. This helps discovering the effects of business model changes on architectural design.” [L.O. Meertens et al.]
Holistic development includes built-in architecture-support for strategy and business model analysis. This enables business analysts and developers observe e.g. how well business model supports the strategy and how business model fit into the organization, and vice versa.
If the BMC is modeled within a modeling tool, an advantage of this approach is that all the elements of the BMC can be used in other views of the same model repository. And when pivoting the business model, all the changes are immediately visible. Business modelers can create new elements such as services, or utilize all the existing elements in the repository such as organization units or resources.
The diagram below is modelled by using ArchiMate Business and Motivation elements, but also other elements from other ArchiMate layers such as Strategy- and Application Layers can be used if appropriate.
