ArchiMate Relationships
In the last article of this series, we provided an overview of ArchiMate Concepts that symbolized artifacts that make up TOGAF’s Architecture Framework. Each of the concepts has specific relationships to each other that represent flow, dependencies, realizations, and others. Relationships usually have specific pairings, but not always.
Consider the following diagram:
The box symbols represent concepts and the connectors are the relationships. The diagram shows how the concepts are related: assignments, triggers, realizations, and used-by.
Relationship Definitions
Structural Core Relationships
Association: Models a relationship between objects that is not covered by another, more specific, relationship. Often used when the relationship is not known or is not relevant to a viewpoint.
Access: Models the access of behavioral concepts to business or data objects.
Used by: Models the use of services by processes, functions, or interactions and the access to interfaces by roles, components, or collaborations.
Realization: Links a logical entity with a more concrete entity that realizes it; that is, a logical representation of a real object (a data object is real; a report is the logical entity that is realized by the data object).
Assignment: Links the units of behavior with active elements (e.g., roles, components) that perform them, or roles with actors that fulfill them.
Aggregation: Indicates that an object groups a number of other objects. Objects can be aggregated to more than one aggregating object. 
Composition: Indicates that an object is composed of one or more other objects. The latter objects can only be part of one composition.
Dynamic Core Relationships
Flow: Describer the exchange or transfer of, for example, information or value between processes, function, interactions, and events.
Trigger: Describes the temporal or causal relationships between processes, functions, interactions, and events.
Other Core Relationships
Grouping: Indicates that objects of the same or different types belong together based on some common characteristics.
Junction: Used to connect relationships of the same type.
Specialization: Indicates that an object is a specialization of another object.
Motivation Extension Relationships
Motivation relationships deal with interaction/dependencies between motivation concepts such as drivers, goals, principles, etc. Two of the relationships are similar to Core relationships but have different connotations: Aggregation and Realization. The influence relationship is unique to Motivation.
Aggregation: Models the division of some intention into multiple intentions (arrowhead points to the more general, undivided intention).
Realization: Models that some end is realized by some means.
Influence: Models that some motivational element has a positive or negative influence on the realization of another motivational element.
Next time…
For the next blog entry, we will demonstrate how Concepts and Relationships are combined to create Viewpoints and other visualizations.
This blog includes extracts of the ArchiMate 2.0 Specification, Copyright © 2009-2012 The Open Group. ArchiMate® is a registered trademark of The Open Group. For the original material please refer to this page.
