process

ArchiMate 3.2 Equivalent: Business Process (Business Layer - Behavior)

Represents a sequence of business activities, automated workflows, or orchestrations that produce a specific business outcome.

Visual Styling

To apply custom icons, borders, or CSS styles to processes, use a Style Rule (e.g. style process where automation_level == "High" { icon "cpu" }).

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Syntax

process <id> "<Display Name>" {
    description "<text>"
    owner "<team>"
    tags ["tag1", "tag2"]
    time "Tolerate" | "Invest" | "Migrate" | "Eliminate"
    cost 10000 month
    risk "High" | "Medium" | "Low"
    criticality "Mission-Critical" | "Business-Critical" | "Operational" | "Administrative" | "Standard"
    sla "4 hours"
    automation_level "Full" | "Partial" | "Manual"

    relationships { ... }
}

---

Properties

Property	Type	Allowed Values	Description
description	string	Free text	Explanation of the process scope
owner	string	Free text	Process owner or operating team
tags	string[]	Array of strings	Categorization tags
time	enum	"Tolerate", "Invest", "Migrate", "Eliminate"	TIME portfolio disposition
cost	cost	cost 5000 month or block form	Process execution spend
risk	enum	"High", "Medium", "Low"	Process operational risk rating
criticality	enum	"Mission-Critical", "Business-Critical", "Operational", "Administrative", "Standard"	Criticality classification
sla	string	e.g. "15 minutes", "99.9%"	Service Level Agreement target
automation_level	string	e.g. "High", "Medium", "Low", "Manual"	Automation maturity degree

---

Allowed Relationship Verbs & Targets

Verb	ArchiMate Relation	Allowed Target Entity Types
realizes	Realization	capability, goal
serves	Serving	actor, process, system, app, agent
reads, writes	Access	data_object
flows_to	Flow	system, app, component, process, data_object, agent
triggers	Triggering	process, agent
influences	Influence	goal, kpi
migrates_to	Transformation	system, app, component, infrastructure, environment, agent
depends_on	Dependency	process, app, system, component, infrastructure, capability
governed_by	Governance	policy, standard

---

Complete Example

process proc_loan_approval "Mortgage Loan Approval" {
    description "Multi-tier risk assessment and underwriting approval for mortgages"
    owner "Credit Risk Department"
    tags ["origination", "regulated"]
    time "Invest"
    risk "Medium"
    criticality "Business-Critical"
    sla "2 business days"
    automation_level "Partial"
    cost 25000 month

    relationships {
        this realizes cap_lending "Realizes retail lending capability"
        this reads data_credit_score "Evaluates applicant credit profile"
        this triggers proc_disbursement "Triggers funds disbursement upon approval"
        this governed_by pol_responsible_lending "Enforces credit regulations"
    }
}