Architecture Conventions

For conventions specific to specific artifacts & deliverables see the definitions of those items on their particular pages.

Diagram Naming Conventions

• Always use the full name of the item. An acronym, if applicable, may be placed in brackets. E.g.: System Monitoring Service (SMS)
• Never put service/function/process in the name of the element
• Prepend diagram names (WIP) to indicate diagrams that are "Works in Progress". E.g.: "(WIP)Business Intake Process".
• Prepend diagram names with a type/level if necessary.
  • For example, if one has a Business Process Cooperation Diagram for a Segment, do "Segment: Segment Name". E.g.: Segment: Connectivity
  • One might do several levels of diagram (conceptual, logical, physical). To indicate the level, one might append a "- conceptual" to a name. E.g.: Monitoring System - conceptual, or Monitoring System - logical.
• If a diagram is about a particular function/process/element in a larger scope, give the diagram the same name as the element. e.g.: A business process cooperation diagram describing the Data Center Facilities Management SSC service would be named: "Data Center Facilities Management".
• For SSC Service diagrams, one can prepend the title "Service:". e.g.: "Service: Data Center Facilities Management".

Associations (QualiWare vs ArchiMate)

One can make both QualiWare associations (Breaks down to, RelationContext, Documents, Tags....) and/or ArchiMate relationships (lines of particular types).

• For diagrams, always show the appropriate ArchiMate relationships.
• Between diagrams, it's wise and helpful to do a Breaks down to association between objects/elements in your diagram to relevant sub-diagrams (details).
• One may wish to make "hard" QualiWare associations between major functions/processes as "breaks down to" relationships as well. Investigation required as to if this is necessary for the types of reporting we want to do.