Glossary

An Application Platform Interface (API), sometimes also called Application Interface, is an interface between two or more applications and / or an application and an application platform. The Interface is the means of communication between application(s) and / or the application platform.

APM involves carefully managing and optimizing a company's collection of software applications to achieve specific business goals.

Architectural Style is the means of describing the features by which the Architecture is designed or expressed.

Architecture refers to the structure of components, the interrelationships of these components, principles, and guidelines governing the design and evolution of the Architecture over time.

An Architecture Building Block is a constituent component of the overall architecture that describes a single aspect of the overall model.

The Architecture Continuum, which is a part of the Enterprise Continuum, is a collection of architectural elements, containing increasing detail and specialization.

The Architecture Development Method (or ADM) is at the core of TOGAF and it provides the step-by-step approach to developing and then using an Enterprise Architecture.

An Architectural Domain is the component area or viewpoint of an Architecture under consideration.

The notion of an Architecture Framework is a conceptual structure used to construct, implement, and maintain an architecture.

Architecture Governance is the approaches and focus by which enterprise architectures and other architectures are organized, ordered, managed and controlled at an enterprise-wide level.