UAF specifies that an enterprise architecture can be thought of in terms of: domains, views, and viewpoints.
Domains are areas, or layers, of the enterprise architecture. They include:
▪Metadata (Md) – the capture of the metamodel of the architecture
▪Strategic (St) – the same as DoDAF 2’s Capability domain and MODAF’s Strategic domain
▪Operational (Op) – the same as DoDAF 2’s Operational domain
▪Personnel (Pr) – since so much goes into the modeling of human factors, the organizational chart has been broken out into its own domain
▪Resources (Rs) – the same as DoDAF 2’s Systems domain, but focusing on all kinds of Resources
▪Services (Sv) – the same as DoDAF 2’s Services domain
▪Security (Sc) – a new domain introduced by the Canadian DNDAF
▪Projects (Pj) – the same as DoDAF 2’s Project domain and MODAF’s
▪Standards (St) – the same as DoDAF 2’s Standards domain
▪Actual Resources (Ar) – the optional modeling of instances of types of artifacts
▪Summary (Sm) – the high-level summary of the architecture – includes the All View (AV) and the OV-1 Operational conceptual view.
A view is the modeling or information view for the domain. UAF specifies these views:
▪Taxonomy (Tx) – the names of artifacts in the architecture for a domain, what they mean, and their hierarchy (what belongs to what).
▪Structure (Sr) – dependencies, connections, and relationships of artifacts.
▪Connectivity (Cn) – typically how Roles are connected
▪Process (Pr) – includes Operational Activity, Resource Function, and Service Function flow diagrams, decomposition of Activities and Functions, and the Process flow diagrams that show how they are orchestrated.
▪States (St) – State diagram showing the state that an artifact is in, and how it transitions to other states.
▪Interaction Scenarios (Is) – a UML Sequence diagram view of artifacts shown as Object Lifelines, and exchanges of resources or information between them shown chronologically top to bottom
▪Information (If) – Data models
▪Constraints (Ct) – a visual of the constraints that must apply to architectural elements
▪Roadmap (Rm) – a timeline view of an artifact over time.
▪Traceability (Tr) – a matrix of some sort showing how artifacts are related to one another.
▪Overview (Ov) – an overall view of the Summary domain.
Combine the two categories above and you get a viewpoint. For example:
▪Op-Sr Operational Structure viewpoint – similar to the OV-2 of DoDAF 2
▪Op-Pr Operational Process viewpoint – includes the OV-5a, OV-5b, and OV-6c of DoDAF 2
▪Rs-Ct Resource Constraint viewpoint – similar to the SV-10a of the DoDAF 2
▪Sm-Ov Summary and Overview viewpoint – similar to the All View (AV-1) of DoDAF 2