How to add Letter Notation?

Started by Xiaoqi, March 26, 2021, 22:14:11 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

Xiaoqi

Hello,

I'm now preparing the ArchiMate exam and reading the ArchiSurance case study, in page 19's Figure 13, as attached, they mention the "letter notation" concept that shows a letter - S for strategy and B for business layer, is there the existing method that I can show that in Archi tool?

I tried to set in Label, but that's change the central wording.

Thanks a lot,
Xiaoqi

Phil Beauvoir

#1
The letter notation is not actually implemented in Archi. You could create a small Note figure with no border and zero opacity with a "B" or "S" in it and add that to the main figure if you really needed it.

(TBH, I'm not sure how useful these letter notations are. Also, "B" doen not always stand for "Business" in non-English languages.)
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Xiaoqi

Thanks Phil for clarification.

Actually, I agree with you that the entity itself with ArchiMate language definition is already clear enough, if follow the "rule" properly, so simply adding one another Letter looks like not necessary. Understand the way you suggested using a "Note" to simulate, however, will not use that too much except specific required.

Thanks again,
Xiaoqi

Jean-Baptiste Sarrodie

Hi,

The letter notation is not official but an example of some method you or a tool can use to remove ambiguity when you use your own color (which, btw you should do most of the time in the real life practice). The equivalent in Archi would be to set the label as "${name} (${type})" which would show the concept type.

Tbh, most stakeholder don't know ArchiMate, so a legend which explains concepts used with their own words (e.g Business activity instead of process, information instead of business object...) is usually better (in short:always add a legend).

Last: if you mix similar concepts from different layers (process, function...) and use the same color for them, either the distinction is not needed anyway for a stakeholder to understand, or you screwed somewhere and adding a letter will just make it worse.

Regards,

JB
If you value and use Archi, please consider making a donation!
Ask your ArchiMate related questions to the ArchiMate Community's Discussion Board.

Xiaoqi

Thanks JB for this nice tip, I tried this and think adding one "line break" can make the looks and feels better, through "${name}\n(${type})".

As attached, again, agree that simply adding that one Capital Letter not help a lot to stakeholders communicating, but with the ${type} added sometimes can prevent we ourselves lost in some cross layer notation after having customized coloring.

Will keep this as one way of working.

Nice weekend,
Xiaoqi