Orthogramic Metamodel
Business architecture has traditionally been seen as a discipline focused on mapping capabilities, aligning strategies, and describing organisational structures. While valuable, this perspective often treats architecture as a static representation—useful for planning, but disconnected from daily operations and responsiveness to change.
The Orthogramic Metamodel redefines business architecture as a dynamic, organisation-wide system of understanding, decision-making, and alignment. It moves beyond static models and narrow scopes, embedding performance, policy, technology, people, and strategic change directly into the structure of architecture itself.
This enables organisations to model not just what they do, but why, how, for whom, and with what effect.
What Makes Orthogramic Different
At its core, the Orthogramic Metamodel introduces an extensible set of structured domains—each defined using schema-first design —to represent a comprehensive view of how an organisation functions and adapts.
These domains include traditional areas such as:
- Strategy and Capabilities
- Value Streams and Initiatives
- Stakeholders and Information
But they are expanded to encompass areas often overlooked in conventional frameworks:
- Customer, People, and Market
- Sustainability and Innovation
- Social Change and Intelligence
Connected by Design
These domains are interlinked using explicitly defined relationships, allowing for a multi-dimensional view of an organisation that is:
- Traceable — Every element can be linked to its strategic purpose
- Scalable — Works for teams, divisions, or entire enterprises
- Real-time relevant — Designed for continuous alignment, not static documentation
This positions business architecture not as an artefact of strategy, but as an enabler of execution.
From Documentation to Decision-Making
By enabling data-driven modelling, shared semantics, and responsive change structures, the Orthogramic Metamodel elevates business architecture from a documentation exercise to an operating model for strategy-aligned execution and transformation.
The schema-first, JSON-based approach means the Orthogramic Metamodel integrates naturally with data catalogs, metadata management platforms, and governance tools like OpenMetadata. See our Integration Guide for details.
Getting Started
Choose a starting point that suits your role or experience level:
| Your Background | Recommended Starting Point |
|---|---|
| New to business architecture | New to Business Architecture |
| Experienced with BIZBOK | Familiar with BIZBOK |
| Want the big picture first | The Model at a Glance |
| Learn by solving problems | Problem Examples |
| Need definitions | Terminology Guide |
| Ready to start modeling | Getting Started Worksheet |
Open Source
The Orthogramic Metamodel is freely available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 (CC BY-SA 4.0) licence, ensuring it remains open, collaborative, and widely accessible.
Our Open Source Manifesto outlines our commitment to transparency, interoperability, and community stewardship.
Ready to dive in? Start with the Getting Started Guide.