Meta-model
Understanding Kabeen's enterprise architecture meta-model
Introduction
An enterprise architecture meta-model is an abstract framework that defines the structure, relationships, and constraints of the various artifacts that make up your architecture. It provides a standardized language for describing and analyzing architecture components to ensure consistency and facilitate communication between stakeholders.
Kabeen offers a specific meta-model for mapping information systems and their interactions. This meta-model is inspired by enterprise architecture practices, including business, data, application, and technology layers.
Main Layers of the Kabeen Meta-model
The Kabeen meta-model is organized similarly to enterprise architecture meta-model layers:
- Business and organization layers: represent the organizational structure and teams that use applications.
- Application layers: describe software solutions, their functional characteristics, and their lifecycle.
- Data layers: list data objects and their attributes (confidentiality, criticality, master role, etc.).
- Infrastructure layers: group servers and networks used to run applications.
These layers are linked according to typical dependencies: business processes consume data, applications support business processes, applications access data, and applications run on infrastructure.
Entities and Attributes
Organizational Units
Organizational units represent the company's hierarchical structure and allow grouping applications and users by team.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Name of the group or unit |
| Parent group | Allows representing the hierarchy |
| Owner | Business owner in charge of quality and information updates |
Applications
Applications describe software (SaaS or on-premises) used by teams.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Application name |
| Publisher | Software publisher company |
| Category | Functional domain (commerce, HR, marketing, etc.) |
| Criticality | Application impact (low, medium, high) |
| Type | Solution type (SaaS, Internal Development, Hosted) |
| Status | Lifecycle status (deployed, phase-in, phase-out) |
Data Objects
Data objects represent datasets manipulated by applications.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Name | Data object name |
| Domain | Functional domain |
| Confidentiality | Confidentiality level |
| Criticality | Data importance |
| Role | Role relative to an application (Master, Reference, Read-only) |
Data Flows
Data flows describe data exchanges between sources and targets.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| Source | Data source application |
| Data objects | List of transmitted data objects |
| Target | Data destination application |
| Protocol | Protocol used for exchange |
| Format | Data format during exchange |
| Frequency | Data exchange frequency |
Conclusion
The structuring of information in Kabeen through a coherent meta-model is inspired by enterprise architecture best practices. By offering well-defined entities and explicit relationships, the platform allows you to document and analyze your information system systematically.