ArchiMate Language and Concepts
What the language gives you
ArchiMate is a modelling language for enterprise architecture. Its core idea is a small set of generic concept categories - active structure, behaviour, passive structure, and motivation - that recur across all layers. Active structure elements are things that can do something (a Business Actor, an Application Component, a Node). Behaviour elements are the work those things perform (Business Process, Application Function, Technology Service). Passive structure elements are the things acted upon (Business Object, Data Object, Artifact). Motivation elements explain why (Stakeholder, Driver, Goal, Requirement, Constraint).
Relationships are the exam's favourite trap
You must know the difference between structural relationships (Composition, Aggregation, Realization, Assignment) and dependency/other relationships (Serving, Access, Influence, Association). Two distinctions cause most errors:
- Realization vs. Serving: Realization means one element achieves or carries out another (a process realizes a business service). Serving means one element provides functionality to another without realizing it (an application service serves a business process).
- Composition vs. Aggregation: Composition is a strong whole-part where the part cannot exist independently in that context; Aggregation is a weaker grouping.
Also learn specialization (a kind-of relationship) and the derived triggering from behavioural flows.
Rule of thumb
When a question asks which relationship fits, ask: Does the target exist because of the source (Realization), or does the source merely use the target's capability (Serving)? If you can delete the source and the target still makes sense, it is usually Serving, not Realization.
Worked example
An Application Component exposes an Application Service. A Business Process uses that service. The correct link is Serving from the Application Service to the Business Process - not Realization, because the process is not achieved by the service in the realization sense; it consumes it.