Enterprise Architects | QualiWare Center of Excellence

Conceptual Data Model

Purpose: The Conceptual Data Model template is used to describe a high-level business oriented structure of the information concept used in a specific business area. Below yo can se an example of a Conceptual Data Model where the data is divided into data for internal and external use:

Core concerns: The conceptual data model template enables you to model a preliminary high level data model. It may be abstract in content and sparse in attributes. Its preliminary structure allows for many-to-many relationships. When using the Conceptual Data Model, you can model Information Concepts, Subject Areas, and their interrelationships. Below, you can see a car rental service’s Conceptual Data Model for a customer’s data.

Relation to other templates: The conceptual data model is a means of communicating information structures between participants in a project or documenting the overall Information Concept of a specific organization. For a more detailed model you should use a Data Model Diagram.

Properties and metadata: The Conceptual Data Model can for example retain the following metadata:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the accuracy of the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram
Project status: information about budgeted and actual man-hours spent, percentage completed and the latest milestone, result and quality control of a change process.

In the picture below you can see the Conceptual Data Model’s properties dialogue window, where the information can be viewed and edited:

Concept Model

Purpose: The purpose of a Concept Model is to organize an enterprise’s vocabulary to support cPonsistent and unambiguous communication about specific problem domains across business units.

Core concerns: The Concept Model template enables you to model Concepts, Specialization Aspects and Subject Areas. They can be linked by Concept Associations, Concept Aggregations, Concept Generalizations, Type Relationships, and Relationship Constraints.

You are also able to link the diagram to its area of usage through the model’s property dialogue. This area of usage can by default be set to be either an Organization Unit, Role, Actor or External Entity.

Below you can see some examples of Concept Models from a healthcare domain:

The model above shows the concepts related to the healthcare activity ‘knee arthroplasty’. The model below shows the concepts related to a signature in the healthcare domain:

The model above shows the concepts related to the healthcare activity ‘knee arthroplasty’.

The model below shows the concepts related to a signature in the healthcare domain:

Relation to other templates: A Concept Model should enable the identification of the right terms to use in communications where high precision is needed. This is useful when creating large sets of business rules or processes that need to fit together without ambiguity and when creating complex Data Models. As such, it could be advantageous to link to a concept model from the affected Business Process Networks, Workflow Diagrams, Requirements Models and Regulation Diagrams.

Properties and metadata: The Concept Model can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the model
Link to the one responsible for the model
Link to view of area of usage
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Concept Model, where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.

For more information: to learn more about Concept Models, you can read the following article:

Ronald G. Ross , “What Is a Concept Model?” Business Rules Journal Vol. 15, No. 10, (Oct. 2014). URL: http://www.brcommunity.com/a2014/b779.html

Communication Diagram

Purpose: The purpose of the Communication Diagram template is to document interactions between objects or parts, focusing on sequenced messages.

Core concerns: The Communication Diagram template is a simplified UML 2.0 alternative to the UML Collaboration Diagram. It enables you to model Lifelines and Annotation, which can be connected by messages.

Below you can see a simple example of a Communication Diagram:

Relation to other templates: Usually, Communication Diagrams would be modeled using information from Class Diagram, Sequence Diagram, and Use case diagram. It is related to the other UML interaction diagrams: Sequence Diagram, Interaction overview diagram and Timing Diagram.

While the Communication Diagram show much of the same information a Sequence Diagram does, the Communication Diagram conveys which elements each one interacts with better, while sequence diagrams show the order in which the interactions take place more clearly.

Other UML diagrams that QualiWare support include: Activity Diagram, Communication Diagram, Deployment Diagram, , Composite Structure Diagram, State Diagram, Package Diagram, Component Diagram, Composite structure Diagram, and Object Diagram.

Properties and metadata: The Communication Diagram can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagrams
Link to related sequence diagram
Extensions (Stereotype, Constraints and Tagged values)
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Communication diagram, where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.

For more information: about the UML, please visit the Object Management Group’s Website, where you can find the complete specification.

Class Diagram

Purpose: The primary objective of the Class Diagram template is to visually represent and document the structural components of a system utilizing the Unified Modeling Language (UML). Displayed below is an example of a straightforward Class Diagram:

Core concerns: The Class Diagram effectively captures the various classes within a system, their attributes, operations, and the relationships between classes and other objects, such as packages. This comprehensive representation enables a clear understanding of the system’s structure, promoting efficient communication among stakeholders and facilitating system design and maintenance.

Example: In the Class Diagram below, the relationships between the classes “Customer” and “Internet User” and the packages “WEB-API”, “Reservation Control”, “GUI” (Graphical User Interface), and “Database” are illustrated. This example highlights the connections among different components and provides a visual overview of how they interact within the system:

Relation to other templates: The Class Diagram presents a detailed structural view of information. It can for example be a decomposition of an Information System which typically is presented in an Application Architecture Diagram. If a Class Diagram becomes too complex or large, a Package Diagram, where the classes are grouped into Packages, could be modelled instead.

Properties and metadata: The Class Diagram can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Extensions regarding constraints and tagged values
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

In the picture below you can see the Class Diagrams properties dialogue window, where the information can be viewed and edited:

Business Process Network

Purpose: The purpose of the Business Process Network is to at document a mid- to high-level view of Business Processes and their interrelationships.

Core concerns: The Business Process Network template enables the documentation of top to mid-level processes. The core objects available to model with are Business Processes, Business Events, Business Objects, Business Scope, Information Systems, and different types of connections. Below you can see two examples of a Business Process Network modelled in different styles.

High level process view without business events or connections between processes:

High-level process view where business events and connections indicate a flow between processes, stakeholders and customers:

Relation to other templates: The top-level processes would typically be broken down to one or more levels of mid-level processes. The last level of Business Process Networks can then be broken down to several Workflow Diagrams or Business Process Diagrams detailing the activities contained within the business process

Properties and metadata: The Business Process Network can for example retain the following information:

Description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for executing the processes in the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

In the picture below you can see the Business Process Network’s properties dialogue window, where the diagrams properties can be viewed and edited:

Business Ecosystem

Purpose: The purpose of the Business Ecosystem template is to enable an organization to understand itself from an outside-out perspective by modelling the environment in which the organization is embedded.

Core concerns: The Business Ecosystem supplies five elements to model with: Business, People, Things, Business Interaction and Business Moment. The Business Ecosystem template should primarily be used for modeling entities outside the enterprise to identify new business opportunities in the form of Business Moments.

Above you can see a model of a Business Ecosystem. The blue areas are Business Moments, where the interactions between People, Businesses and Things create business opportunities for your enterprise.

Relation to other templates: The Business Ecosystem model is based on the Enterprise Design theories and is as such in the same family as the Customer journey map.

The Business Ecosystem is a strategic model and can be used to document a strategic possibility or track along with for example Business Capability Models, Strategy Models, and Work Models.

Properties and metadata: The Business Ecosystem can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the application architecture
Link to the one responsible for the application architecture
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram
Project status: information about budgeted and actual man-hours spent, percentage completed and the latest milestone, result and quality control of a change process.

For more information: If you want to learn more about Enterprise Design, we have a four-part webinar by Milan Guenther available for viewing. You can also visit Milan’s website, where you can learn more about the Enterprise Design framework.

Business Capability Model

Purpose: The purpose of the Business Capability Model template is to provide an overview of the of the state and health of an enterprise in the form of its Capabilities.

Core concerns: The Business Capability Model is a simple template that by default only allows for the modelling of Capabilities with the possibility to add notes if needed. The metadata of the Capabilities – such as status and importance can then be graphically displayed in the business capabilities to create a useful overview.

The stripe on the left side to represent Business Importance and two dots representing Business Maturity and Target Maturity. The new design scales better and provides management with a single view of important strategic capabilities with a plan for improvements. Also it allows the business architect to highlight a set of capabilities by coloring the symbol’s background – a widely used technique.

In the picture above you can see an example of a Business Capability Model. Here the Business Capabilities are grouped in different areas and the status and importance of them are shown by their green, yellow or red colorings.

In this Business Capability Model (shown above), more attributes are shown at the right-hand side of the Capability. This way you can get a more detailed view of the state of your enterprises Capabilities.

Other functionalities: Using the Analysis tool, the information from the Business Capability Model template can generate maturity- and score heat maps, hierarchies, score views, capability contexts, gap analyses, dashboards, and what-if-, impact- and investment analyses.

Relation to other templates: The Business Capability Model is a strategic template and is as such complimentary to for example the Strategy Model and Work Model. It can be used to illustrate a change process going from one set of capabilities to another. A Capability can link to the Business Processes that uses it as well as the resources it employs. This way it can also be analyzed which Business Processes would be affected by the improvement or worsen of a given Capability.

It is easy to update and analyse the capability models via the standard views on the web:

The capabilities in a Business Capability Model can easily be scored and presented in filterable and editable lists via the spreadsheet functionality in e.g. the Properties view

The capabilities can be presented in a Capability heatmap

From the Delivered by view you can analyze and update relations between capabilities and initiatives, processes, applications and information-objects.

Properties and metadata: The Business Capability Model can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the accuracy of the diagram
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram
Project status: information about budgeted and actual man-hours spent, percentage completed and the latest milestone, result and quality control of a change process.

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Business Capability Model where you can edit the diagram’s properties.

Note that the Capabilities’ metadata that are exhibited in the Business Capability Model is not further described here as they belong to the Capability object and not the Business Capability Model template.

Business Canvas

Purpose: The Business Canvas, is a strategic management and entrepreneurial template. It allows you to describe, design, challenge, invent, and pivot your business model.

Core Concerns: The core elements of the business canvas are framework cells that define a strategic or organizational entities and, if needed, connections between them. The Business Model can be structured any way you wish. The most well know structure of a business model is Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model Canvas.

The above picture shows a blank Business Model Canvas where each area is represented by a framework cell.

The strategic or organizational entities can then be enriched with an extended portfolio of strategic symbols such as vision, mission, goals, stakeholders, information systems and business processes.

Full content list of the extended portfolio:

Vision
Mission
Business Object
Market
Competitive Advantage
Technology
Competence
Capability
Performance Indicator

Business Function
Business Process
Organization Unit
Stakeholder
Information System
External Entity
Location
Channel
Goal

Opportunity
Threat
Trend
Material Asset
Intellectual Capital Asset
Business Rule
Key Performance Indicator

The picture below shows a Business Model Canvas that is filled out with symbols from the extended portfolio.

Relation to other templates: The Business Canvas can link to multiple related templates detailing the businesses capabilities, business processes, strategy and more.

Properties and metadata: The Business Canvas Diagram can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the application architecture
Link to the one responsible for the application architecture
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

Balanced Scorecard Diagram

Purpose: The purpose of the Balanced Scorecard Diagram is to model Balanced Scorecards, as described by Robert Kaplan and David Norton in 1992.

Core concern: Usually, a Balanced Scorecard Diagram template measures the state of the enterprise via Key Performance Indicators that are categorized into four different perspectives using Business Scopes. Aside from this, the template enables you to model general concepts and cause/effect.

Below, you can see an example of a Balanced Scorecard Diagram:

Relation to other templates: The Balanced Scorecard Diagram can be used to create a Performance Evaluation Model or a Strategic Management Diagram the Key Performance Indicators it contains can be broken down into Performance Diagrams offering a detailed view of how the organization performs. If CXO dashboards are to be created, the Strategy Model should be used instead.

Properties and metadata: The Balanced Scorecard Diagram can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to the owner of the diagram
Link to the one responsible for the diagram
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram.

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Balanced Scorecard Diagram, where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.

Architecture Framework

Purpose: The purpose of the Architecture Framework template, is to provide an overview of the enterprise, and the context for a diagram, showing where in the architecture and repository it belongs. An Architecture Framework shows the overall structure of the architecture and the structure with which it is represented in the repository.

Core concerns: The Architecture Framework template consists of FrameWorkCells, FrameWorkColumns, FrameWorkRows and LineOfBusinesses. You can choose to model the framework to fit the one your organization is using – QualiWare supports a wide range of architecture frameworks out of the box such as Zachman, TOGAF , OIOEA, EA3 Cube, EDGY, QualiWare EA Framework, and many more.

Below, you can see an example of the QualiWare EA Framework:

Below, you can see an example of a TOGAF framework:

Relation to other templates: The Architecture Framework template is used to represent the repository’s architecture in the form of a specific framework. If CXO dashboards are to be created, the Strategy Model should be used instead.

An ArchitectureFramework can be modeled using FrameWorkRows, FrameWorkColumns, and FrameWorkCells

Properties and metadata: The Architecture Framework can for example retain the following information:

A description of the diagram
Link to Architecture principles and project models
Link to the owner of the framework
Link to the one responsible for the framework
Audits (auto generated information regarding its current state and access rights)
Associated documents, diagrams and other objects
Inherent Risk detailing risk considerations
Governance information detailing information about the published diagram and who has been involved in the approval of the diagram

The above picture shows the properties dialogue window for the Architecture Framework where you can view and edit the diagram’s properties in QualiWare Lifecycle Manager.