Highlights of the latest version of the ArchiMate notation for users of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect.
On the 18th October 2022 The Open Group announced the release of ArchiMate 3.2 providing an update to the notation.
What does this mean for EA Users?
This doesn’t mean anything for users of Sparx Systems Enterprise Architect right now, but you can bet your bottom dollar that the team at Sparx will provide an update to the ArchiMate MDG in the near future.
In terms of how this will affect your existing models, beyond synchronising your element stereotypes to the new MDG there are a few things that you will need to be aware of.
ArchiMate 3.2; the highlights
New Definitions
 | An outcome represents an end result, effect, or consequence of a certain state of affairs. |
 | A constraint represents a limitation on aspects of the architecture, its implementation process, or its realisation. |
 | A business function represents a collection of business behaviour based on a chosen set of criteria such as required business resources and/or competencies and is managed or performed as a whole. |
 | A product represents a coherent collection of services and/or passive structure elements, accompanied by a contract, which is offered as a whole to (internal or external) customers. |
Pretty in Pink!
The update to the notation brings a change to the Implementation & Migration layer by changing the colour of the Plateau and Gap elements to be the same pink colour as the rest of the elements for this layer.
This means that our migration viewpoints will stop looking like this:
And will instead look like this:
Whilst a very minor change this will be of benefit to new users of the notation as there will be less confusion due to Implementation & Migration elements no longer being coloured as if they belong to the Technology Layer.
New Notations
ArchiMate 3.2 will bring a few changes to both the Icon Notation and Box/Rectangle Notation for several elements. You can see the changes in the table below:
Technology Layer Changes
Elements of the Physical Viewpoint are now officially part of the Technology Layer rather than being a separate part of the notation.
There are also several changes to the Technology Layer metamodel that will mean that Device, System Software, Facility and Equipment elements are no longer subtypes of the Node element. Instead, they will become active structure elements that can be related to Node elements via composition and aggregation connectors.
This diagram does not show all permitted relationships. As before, every element in the ArchiMate 3.2 language can have the following relationships to elements of the same element type:
- Composition
- Aggregation
- Specialisation
Conclusion
It is always exciting when a notation is updated as it usually means, as modellers, we have a fair bit of reading and experimentation to do. Once Enterprise Architect supports ArchiMate 3.2 we will publish a guide on how to update the element stereotypes on your existing ArchiMate diagrams.
As I mentioned earlier, to go through the updated specification in detail you will need to go to The Open Group website to download and review the update in its entirety.