ArchiMate 3.0: Viewpoint Mechanism

ArchiMate 3.0: Viewpoint Mechanism

The purpose dimension includes three categories:

• Designing – Design viewpoints support users in the design process from initial sketch to detailed design. They are usually expressed as diagrams.

• Deciding – Decision support viewpoints assist managers by offering insights into cross-domain architecture relationships, e.g. cross-reference tables, landscape maps, lists, and reports.

• Informing – Informing viewpoints have a generic purpose. They may inform stakeholders about the EA to bring clarity, obtain buy-in, as well as convince reticent stakeholders. These normally include illustrations, animations, and flyers.

The content dimension uses the ArchiMate Core Framework in order to identify the necessary aspects and layers. It comprises three categories:

• Details – Views on the detailed level typically consider one layer and one aspect from the ArchiMate Core Framework. Who might find this most useful? Typical stakeholders include process owners responsible for effective and efficient process execution or perhaps software engineers responsible for the design and implementation of a software component.

• Coherence – The coherence abstraction level spans multiple layers or multiple aspects. Extending the view to more than one layer or aspect enables the stakeholder to focus on architecture relationships like process-uses-system (multiple layer) or application-uses-object (multiple aspect). Coherence views are generally aimed at operational managers responsible for a collection of IT services or business processes.

• Overview – The overview abstraction level addresses both multiple layers and multiple aspects. Typically, such overviews are most relevant for enterprise architects and decision-makers, such as CEOs, CTOs, CIOs, etc.