An  Action Process is a Behavior that describes a typical course of action intended to produce Outcome Events, through the involvement of Agents as Active Participants.

During its course of action, a process consumes or produces Functional Assets, including Information Assets.

1) It may memorize or access Information Assets from and to its Process Stores.

2) It may receive Functional Assets at its boundary: Outcome Consumptions.

3) It may signal the production of Functional Assets at its boundary: Outcome Productions.

The course of actions of a  Action Process is constrained ( Rule Enforcement) by the application of Behavioral Rules that define what is allowed and not allowed to do.

Within  SysFEAT, we can examine  Action Processes from two distinct perspectives:

a) A conceptual standpoint is provided by Value Streams.

b) A concrete implementation standpoint is provided by Resource Action Processes.

An  Agent is an Operating Asset which is able to participate actively to Behaviors, to produce and react to Outcome Events.

1.  Agents participate to Action Processes (Active Participant) and/or conduct Action Processes (Performed Process).

2.  Agents participate to Interaction Process (Scenario Participant) describing how they interact with other  Agents.

These actions and interactions define  Agents boundaries described by Service Interfaces.

An  Annotation Block is a Building Block used to provide additional characteristics such as Documentations,

Examples:

 Description Notes .

Tags.

An  Architecture Container is a Model Container that packages Asset Blocks used for enterprise architecture descriptions.

This includes Information Asset, Processes, Software Systems, Hardware Systems, Organizations, etc.

Model Containers are used to split  SysFEAT repository content into several independent modules (aka package).

They allow virtual partitions of the repository. In particular, Asset Blocks packaged by different Model Containers can have the same name (namespacing).

There are two main kinds of Model Container: Enterprise and Library.

 Architecture principles are general guidelines (Policy) that serve as constraints that guide design decisions and shape the overall structure of a system. They:

- Establish boundaries for design choices.

- Ensure consistency across the system

- Promote desired qualities (Condition Property: e.g., scalability, maintainability)

- Align architecture with business goals and requirements

 Architecture principles act as guardrails, helping architects make informed decisions while limiting options to those that best serve systems' efficiency and robustness.

An  Asset Category is a Category used to classify Asset Blocks.

There are different kinds of  Asset Category that applies only to certain subtypes of Asset Blocks.

For instance:

. Data Category applies to Information Assets.

. Process Family applies to Resource Operating Assets.

. Risk Type applies to  Functional Assets.

An  Asset Type is a Class of Individual which is used in the description of the enterprise and its systems, such as Action Processes, Department Types, Applications, Location Types, Period Types.

An  Assurance Case is a claim that a particular enterprise asset or group of Functional Asset adequately mitigates certain identified Risk Types by means of appropriated Control Measures.

An  Assurance Case shall provide confidence that the concerned assets will function as intended in their environment of use.

Privacy Processing Activity(ies), Data Lineages are examples of  Assurance Cases .

An  Assurance Instrument is a resource or course of actions used by an Assurance System to achieve its objectives.

For instance:

Actions plans are course of actions aimed at solving incidents.

Data Controls are mechanisms used to ensure data quality and data integrity

Privacy Representatives are used to identify national entities in charge of privacy.

A  Behavior is an Operating Asset that describes any action or reaction of an Agent to external or internal Behavioral Events.  Behaviors include Action Processes (action), Interaction Processs (stories) or interactions (Service Interface).

The course of actions of a  Behavior is constrained ( Rule Enforcement) by the application of Behavioral Rules that define what is allowed and not allowed to do.

A  Behavioral Event is a Temporal Bounding Type that establishes a temporal connection between Behaviors.

A  Behavioral Event connects a Predecessor  Behavioral Event, to a Successor  Behavioral Event.

A  Behavioral Rule is a Directive intended to guide the Behavior of Agents, in compliance with enterprise Policy(ies) or regulations.

Often, a  Behavioral Rule is derived from a Policy.  Behavioral Rules are enforced in Processes and Agents.

A  Capability is a functional  Asset Property which refers to the ability to produce an Outcome Event.

Capabilitys are fulfilled by Agents performing Processes and interacting with other Agents to produce the desired Outcome Event.

A  Condition Category is a class of  Condition Property Type.

Example: Measurement Types (Performance, Security, Cost), PESTEL (political, economic, social, environmental, legal)

It is used to group Condition Property Type(ies) by domain of concerns represented by Family of Measurement.

A  Condition Property is a possible value of a Condition Property Type such as a delivery time of 30 minutes, a weight of 20 kg, a high level of confidentiality, stormy conditions.

A  Condition Property is either a single measure (Measure Property: a weight of 20 kg), an Environmental Property (stormy conditions.) or a Set of Condition Propertiess.

 Condition Propertys are used to constrain Asset Blocks in the context of non-functional requirement analysis and Value Proposition analysis.

Examples:

. Cost of 100€

. Delivery time of 30 minutes.

. Weight of 20 kg.

. Temperature of 18 degree Celcius.

A  Condition Property Type expresses a type of constraint that can be applied to Asset Types.

These constraints can be either Measure Property Type (Time, Mass, Cost, ..), Environmental Property Types (Terrain Type, Light conditions, Weather conditions) or a grouping of these (Set of Environmental Condition Type).

 Condition Property Types are used to constrain Asset Blocks in the context of non-functional requirement analysis and Value Proposition analysis.

A  Control Directive is a kind of Policy that provides recommendations on how to comply with Regulation Articles.

Once implemented,  Control Directives enforces any  Regulatory Framework your enterprise has to comply with.

A  Directive is an authoritative declaration that indicates how Agents and their Behaviors should be (or should not be) in the enterprise.

Specifically, a  Directive defines, constrains or liberates some aspects of an Agent and its Behaviors. As such,  Directives shall be considered as constraning  Asset Propertys.

 Directives are intended to assert agent structures or to control or influence their Behaviors.  Directives are stated in declarative form.

An  Environment Interaction Process is a story that describes how an Agent interacts with its partners (Partner Agent) to achieve Outcome Events in a specific Operating Eco-System (Agent Environment).

This includes:

1) A course of events represented by Object Flows depicting the succession of intermediate Outcome Events towards the production and consumption of final Outcome Events.

2) Interacting partners who participate to the story in the considered Operating Eco-System.

An  Environmental Property is a specific value of an Environmental Property Type.

 Environmental Propertys are used as constraints on Asset Blocks in the context of non-functional requirement analysis and Value Proposition analysis.

Examples:

- Muddy, frozen ground, deep snow (Terrain Type),

- Broad daylight, dusk, moonlit  (Light condition).

An  Environmental Property Type is a characteristic of the environment in which an Enterprise or its sub-systems are required to operate.

Examples:

. Terrain Type: muddy, frozen ground, deep snow, etc;

. Light conditions: broad daylight, dusk, moonlit, etc;

. Weather condition: stormy, sunny, cloudy, etc;

. Polical conditions: political stability, level of education;

. Economical conditions: exchange rates, inflation rate.

A  Family of Category is a Top level group of categories that belong to a common domain.

For instance, the GDPR categorization schema groups all categories relevant to GDPR such as data categories, sensitive activities.

 Functional Assets encompasse all  Architecture Asset Types used to describe why and how systems operate/function. This includes the Operating Eco-System where system operates to fulfill these purposes (Agents and their  Behaviors).

 Functional Assets include:

1. Blocks defining results of Behaviors of the enterprise or its sub-systems, that benefit to it internal or external customers : Outcome Event,

2. Blocks used to describe information: Information Asset.

3. Blocks used to describe how the enterprise operates: Operating Assets (Agent, Behavior, Service Interface).

All  Functional Assets are constrained by Policys and are exposed to Risk Types.

An  Individual Asset is an  Individual which is used in the description of the enterprise and its systems.

 Individual Assets can be qualified by  Condition Scale Values.

An  Information Asset  represents anything that can be communicated or memorized by an Agent to produce and react to Outcome Events.

An  Information Asset is either an Information Entity or an  Information Property.
The difference lies in their relationship to change and to time. Information Entity(ies) can change over time and have a lifeycle while  Information Propertys are immutable characteristics.

An  Information Block is an Asset Block involved in the description of information.

 Information Blocks range from Information Assets to Information Domains.

They are packaged in Information Dictionary(ies) and managed in Data Catalogs.

An  Information Dictionary is a Model Package of Information Blocks used to describe an information architecture. This includes:

1. Information Domain which groups Information Entitys by unit knowlege required by an Agent to operate during Behavior execution.

2. Information Entity which constitute resusable unit of information that can change over time.

3. Concept Property which constitue immutable characteristics of Information Entitys.

Concrete implementations of Model Packages are Business Dictionary, Logical Data Dictionary, etc.

An  Information Entity is an Information Asset that is not fundamentally defined by its attributes, but rather by its continuity.

An  Information Entity evolves over time and has states.

For instance a person is an  Information Entity. Employe is a state of a person.

An  Information Entity has relationships to other  Information Entitys and can have  Information Propertys.

An  Information Map is a  Operating Property Map that is the top level grouping of Information Domains.

  Information Maps are used to provide navigationtop level entry points for  Information Dictionary(ies) and to scope data management initiatives at the level of portfolio management ( Data Catalog), at the project level or at the Enterprise level (Enterprise Concept Map).

An  Information Property is an Information Asset that represents a characteristic (Property) of an Information Entity.

An  Information Property is fundamentally defined by its value. It doesn't evolve over time and is thereby immutable.

Examples:

. Address.

. Customer Name.

. Amounts,

An  Initiative is any piece of work that is undertaken or attempted under the responsibility of a Steering Authority.

 Initiatives range from single project to long term initiatives (Enduring Initiative) such as Enterprises.

 Initiatives are sychronized over time using Initiative Milestones.

An  Interaction Process is a story (Behavior) that describes how the components of an Agent interacts to produce and consume Outcome Events.
This includes:

1) A course of events represented by  Object Flows depicting the succesion of  intermediate Outcome Events towards the production of the final Outcome Events.

2) Interacting Agents who participate to the story.

A  Measure Property is a possible value of a Measure Property Type such as a delivery time of 30 minutes, a weight of 20 kg, a high level of confidentiality.

It represents how much there is or how many there are of something that you can quantify according to its Constraining Measurable Property.

 Measure Propertys are used as constraints on Asset Blocks in the context of non-functional requirement analysis and Value Proposition analysis.

A  Measure Property Type is a Condition Property Type that expresses a type of measurement (Time, Mass, Cost, ..) and define the units used for measures (minutes, kg, euros, etc.).

Examples:

- Time to deliver in minutes.

- Delivery cost in kilo Euros.

Condition Property Types are described by Measure Unit: kg, Liter, Gallon, Hour, Minute.

Condition Property Types are used to constrain Asset Blocks in the context of non-functional requirement analysis and Value Proposition analysis.

A  Measurement Type is a class of  measurement.

Example: Performance, Security, Cost.

It is used to group Measure Property Type(ies) by domain of concerns represented by Family of Measurements.

A  Model Building Block is a Building Block used to represent aspects of the reality. It comprises:

-  Asset Blocks are used to describe the how the enterprise and its systems operate (function) is their eco-systems.

-  Initiatives are used to manage enterprise and systems functional transformations, as well as assurance objectives and activities.

-   Governance Instruments are used to ensure that these objectives and activities are understood and fulfilled.

A Model Container is a Container of Model Building Blocks used to describe both the architecture of the enterprise and Initiatives aimed at designing, developing, running, adapting and maintaining this architecture over time.

Model Containers range from Information Dictionary(ies), architecture Library(ies) up to an entire Enterprise .

A  Model Lexical Scope is Block Lexical Scope for Model Building Blocks.

It also adds the ability to nest Annotation Blocks.

A  Model Property Block is a Building Block used to provide classification and qualification ofModel Building Blocks.

For instance, Tags are used for classification. Condition Value are used for qualification or quantification.

An  Operating Asset is a Functional Asset that describes the way Outcome Events are produced and consumed: how (Behaviors) and by whom (Agents).

 Operating Assets fulfill Capability(ies) (Fulfilled Capability).

As any  Functional Architecture Asset,  Operating Assets are subject to Policy Conformances. In addition, they define Rule Enforcements to indicate how Policy Conformances are met.

A  Policy is a Directive that is not directly enforceable whose purpose is to govern, guide or constrain the structure and Behavior of Agents in the enterprise.

Policies provide the basis for rules and govern Behaviors carried out by Agents.

Example of Policys are Regulation Articles, Business Policys or Architecture principles.

A  Policy Framework is a set of Policy Assets, defined in laws published by governements or in policy frameworks defined by the enterprise.

Both Business Policy Frameworks and Regulatory Frameworks are Policy Framework(ies).

A   Process Family is a category of Action Process.

Example: support processes, development processes, operational processes,

A  Reference Dictionary is a kind of Architecture Container that is used as a reference library to hold reference materials used to develop architectures.

Example:

- Vendor Catalog

- Regulatory Framework

-

Compulsory Policy, define by law, that is not directly enforceable whose purpose is guide enterprise activities.

 Regulation Articles are classified by Regulation section in the context of a Regulatory Framework.

A  Regulation section is a classification of  Regulation Articles.

 Regulation sections can be themselves organized as a classification hierarchy.

A  Risk Type is a distinct category or classification of risk based on its origin, nature, or potential impact. It helps in organizing and addressing different sources of uncertainty or potential harm that an individual, organization, or system might face. By categorizing risks into different types, entities can develop more targeted mitigation strategies and response plans.

Common risk types include Operational Risk Type, Privacy Risk Type, and Compliance Risk Type, among others,

A  Set of Condition Properties is a 'And' combination of Condition Propertys.

Example:

. Delivery time of 30 minutes, at a cost ranging between $8.50 and $10, in stormy conditions.