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Objects and Metadata

An architecture object is a governed repository record representing something meaningful to Enterprise Architecture.

Standard object types

OpenEA Community 1.5.2 seeds twelve system object types:

  • Business Product
  • Business Capability
  • Business Process
  • Organization
  • Role
  • Application
  • Application Service
  • Data Object
  • Technology
  • Initiative / Project
  • Architecture Principle
  • Architecture Decision

Universal metadata

All architecture objects share a common set of repository fields, including:

  • Name
  • Description
  • Record Status
  • Governance Status
  • Lifecycle Stage, when applicable
  • Criticality
  • Owner Organization
  • Owner Role
  • Source
  • Confidence
  • Valid From / Valid Until
  • Last Reviewed / Next Review
  • Review Frequency
  • Aliases
  • Tags
  • Created / Updated timestamps
  • Archived timestamp

Type-specific metadata

Each object type adds fields defined by its metamodel schema. Examples:

Application adds business fit, technical fit, strategic fit, hosting model, vendor/product/version, retirement dates, RTO/RPO, data classification, and internet-facing status.

Technology adds category, vendor/product/version, lifecycle, strategic status, support-end dates, replacement technology, and approved-for-new-use status.

Business Capability adds parent capability, maturity, target maturity, and strategic importance.

The browser form is schema-driven. OpenEA rejects unknown properties, invalid types, invalid governed values, malformed dates, bad object references, and missing required properties.

Architecture Role vs application role

The Role object type is an Enterprise Architecture repository object representing a business or architecture responsibility. It is separate from OpenEA authorization roles such as Architect or Viewer.

This distinction is important:

Repository Role object
    "Digital Application Owner"

is not the same as

OpenEA application role
    "Architect"

Current and historical objects

Draft, Active, and Inactive objects are current repository records. Archived objects are retained as historical records. Normal search, analytics, findings, portfolios, roadmaps, impact analysis, and relationship target selectors operate on current records by default.

Archived records remain searchable through Explore's Archived and All records scopes, remain directly viewable, and can be restored by an Architect or Architecture Administrator. Archive state is communicated through status/badges and filtering rather than special light/dark row backgrounds.

For Role objects, remember that the universal Owner organization field describes stewardship of the OpenEA record, while the type-specific Role organization describes where the real-world role belongs or operates. Those two references may be the same or different.