Maps for enterprises The Milky Way is an approach to analyze and visualize the whole organization on one page. Too good to be true… …But it is true! The Milky Way concept is based on the fact that most of us can understand and interpret visualized maps better than other kinds of information (such as plain text or tables). There can be many kinds of maps: maps of countries, cities, roads, undergrounds etc. But there can be a map of the organization too. The Milky Wap Map can be THE one-pager that everybody (!) in an organization understands: the C-level, […]
Enterprise Architecture
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This document introduces a set of useful diagram types and a subset of ArchiMate elements. Open & get the pdf version from this link. (Or just click the figure below to open the pdf.) Menu Get a free ArchiMate modelling tool Archi: link. Check the ArchiMate User Community for more information: link ArchiMate Cookbook 1. Introduction 1.1 Purpose And Scope This document covers ArchiMate -patterns and examples, those of which can be used for modelling concepts and solutions related to the development work of an organization. Almost all the business relevant behavioral and structural elements of an organization […]
Architectural Thinking Association (AT) ® is an interesting initiative in order to make the architecture easier for everybody (link). AT core model is relatively simple, it consists of few elements only as follows: Capability, Value Stream (Process), Business Object, Application and Technology Component. The AT core meta-model is illustrated in the diagram below (figure 1). These AT core elements can be visualized with any tool, such as drawing tools like MS Powerpoint or MS Visio. Formal architecture modelling can be used for complementary practice for AT approach. Formal modelling with an appropriate modelling tool (such as BIZZdesign, Orbus iServer, Mavim, Sparx […]
Here is an example of a Concept Canvas that can be used when analyzing an idea to a concept. This concept canvas (figure below) is based on Business Model Canvas, BMC (link), Lean Canvas (link) and Opportunity Canvas (link), but this layering and positioning of the boxes is analogical to architectural layers (e.g. as described here). This Concept Canvas above is created with Archi-tool (link). Note: This rearrangement of BMC boxes makes the canvas more practical to be filled, as the questions are to be asked in more logical order This layered layout matches to what is used in ArchiMate […]
What? Value Chain Based Lean Enterprise Aware Design, Development & Operations. Drivers For Change Continuous change in the operational environment with new digital enabler technologies are driving enterprises to cultural and organizational changes. The overall development has to be organized around creating and delivering added value to customers. Organizations have to be more efficient and capable of providing new digital services. Customer experience – during the customer journey through diverse services – is the most important driving force for enterprises and ecosystems in this digital era. New services have to be designed according to customer needs, organizational value streams have to […]
Value? Value is fundamental to everything that an organization does. The primary reason that an organization exists is to provide value to one or more stakeholders. It is the foundation of a firm’s business model, which describes the rationale for how a business creates, delivers, and captures value. [Value Streams, Open Group, 2017] Value Stream? A key principle of value streams is that value is always defined from the perspective of the stakeholder – the customer, end user, or recipient of the product, service, or deliverable produced by the work. [ArchiMate 3.1, Open Group, 2019] Value Stream Modelling can be used for defining […]
In this design science research, we (Eero Hosiaisluoma, Katja Penttinen, Juha Mustonen, Jukka Heikkilä) propose integrating Enterprise Architecture (EA) into an organization’s development work. We call this method Lean Enterprise Architecture Development (LEAD) – also known as Lean EA (LeanEA). See the research article from the Research Gate link. Or you can get the pdf from here, link. Note! The case story is an EA success story in the public sector, but the same approach applies to private sector too. This is a story, in which EA was re-designed and integrated into an organisation’s development work in an IT department. The […]
Business Architecture can be modelled with small set of diagrams and subset of ArchiMate elements. Here is introduced some typical diagram types, that can be used for business layer modelling, as well as linking business layer to application layer. Most of the diagram types introduced here are variations of the Layered View diagram type. Business Services View This is a simplification of layered view of business services. This view introduces how business services are produced and to which business actors they are provided. ArchiMate elements used in the diagram below are as follows: Business Actor, Business Service and Business Process. Business services […]
Introduction Application Architecture (or Solution Architecture, SA) can be modelled with the same set of ArchiMate diagram types as other levels of architecture (Enterprise- and Domain levels). Application architecture can be modelled with a small subset of ArchiMate elements as follows: Application Component, Application Service and Application Interface. Relationships between those elements can be modelled with ArchiMate relationships as follows: structural relationships (Composition, Assignment, Realization), dependency relationships (Serving, Access) and dynamic relationships (Triggering, Flow). Application Architecture Overview – the Context (Layered View) An overview of an application can be modelled with Layered View. Note! Layering is the categorization of the elements, […]
Introduction Holistic enterprise development can be supported by the Service-Driven Approach (SDA), which focuses on services (instead of projects) as primary units of value creation, design, development and operations. The SDA combines both customer oriented (“outside-in”) and organization internal behavior and structure oriented (“inside-out”) approaches. By focusing on services, enterprise development (or an IT function) can be organized as a “production line” that produces services. The SDA can be supported by practical and simple model-based method, which concentrates on service life-cycle. Service-Driven Thinking The service concept is crucial, according to idea where “everything is a service“: everything can be provided and consumed […]
ArchiMate can be used for holistic enterprise development purposes, as ArchiMate provides concepts that cover all the most relevant aspects of overall modelling. ArchiMate contains lots of elements, what makes it very powerful notation. However, only a subset of ArchiMate elements can be used for most of the cases – according to Pareto’s law (80/20 rule). The most relevant elements and relation types are illustrated in the meta-model diagrams below. An ArchiMate meta-model can be applied to fit for purpose, to be aligned to what is appropriate. Idea behind a metamodel is to introduce those elements that are relevant, with which most […]
ArchiMate can be used for process modelling at high level, especially if there is a need for linking process steps with specific application layer elements such as application services. Couple of examples how ArchiMate can be used for process modelling shown below. Business Process View This business process view provides a “high-level structure and composition of a business process (or several processes), the services that are offered, the assigned roles of actors, and the information used by the business process” [ArchiMate 2.1 specification]. This process diagram contains “Junction” -elements to model “fork” and “join” in the process flow. Business Process View With Roles […]
See the reference implementation of the Lean Enterprise Architecture Framework (LEAF), which is created with Sparx EA -tool and published as HTML report. LEAF 2.2 link LEAF 2.0 link LEAF 1.0 link The LEAF can be used for linking enterprise architecture to solution architecture. High-level enterprise architecture diagrams can be modelled with ArchiMate, from which modellers (and other stakeholders) can drill-down to more detailed diagrams that can be modelled with BPMN or UML. The level-1 (the navigation landing page, the “front page”) of the LEAF is shown in the diagram below (figure 1). The level-2 (domain view) of the LEAF […]
Intro Lean EA approach supports the holistic development of an organization. Lean EA consists of value chain-based development operating model (LEAD) and integrated Enterprise Architecture (EA) practice – with the supporting framework (LEAF). The Lean EA combines management and operational development with the EA. First some basic facts: Lean EA is not focusing on EA. Lean EA is focusing on the overall business development work of an organization (incl. management, operational development and operational business). That’s the beef. A Lean way to produce services and products from idea to production. Lean EA is focusing on the outside-in view, the customer […]
1. Introduction In this digital age, Enterprise Architecture (EA) planning is more important than ever before. New computing models such as cloud, mobility, Internet of Things (IoT) and API economy have arisen, and the overall complexity of the organization’s landscape increases continuously. However, quite often conventional Enterprise Architecture Frameworks have been found too complex, too academic and cumbersome to understand. More practical and easier approach with simpler framework is needed. 1.1 The Lean Enterprise Architecture Development (LEAD) Method The Lean Enterprise Architecture Development (LEAD) method is a new style of EA approach. The LEAD consists of a) value chain-based operating model and […]
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 […]
Strategy can be modeled with ArchiMate. There are elements from Motivation and Strategy elements in ArchiMate, which together can be used for visualizing how strategic goals can be modeled into more concrete strategy views. Strategy View Example Strategy to Capability View – Capability Based Planning (CBP) This view can be used for Capability-Based Planning (CBP) purposes, together with other ArchiMate concepts such as “Driver” and”Goal” as shown in the diagram below. This view can be used to support Strategy Planning (and -Execution) purposes. As such, these kind of views can be used in Strategy-to-Capability phase of the operating model (e.g. […]
