Mohammed Brückner

Enterprise architect and author in Munich: PlantUML and ArchiMate guides, platform economics, MLOps with Databricks, and practical AI adoption — hands-on, no hype.

Mohammed Brückner

PlantUML ArchiMate Templates: Copy-Paste Starting Points

Five templates covering the views I build most often. Every one renders with a current PlantUML out of the box — the ArchiMate standard library is bundled, no downloads needed. Adapt the element names, delete what you do not need, and keep the skeleton.

BY THE WAY: Platform Economies — launching September 1, 2026.
Pre-order on Amazon — Kindle edition available now; paperback follows on September 1. Also available in 🇬🇧 UK, 🇩🇪 DE, 🇯🇵 JP, and 🇨🇦 CA.
Book page: mohammed-brueckner.com/platform-economies.

📚 New here? Start with the PlantUML with ArchiMate Complete Guide — setup, export, styling, and full annotated examples.

Table of Contents

Template 1: Application Landscape

The classic “what applications do we have and who uses them” view. Application components, their services, and the business actors they serve.

@startuml
!include <archimate/Archimate>
left to right direction
!theme plain
!global $ARCH_SPECIAL_SHAPES = %true()
skinparam linetype ortho

title Application Landscape — Template

Business_Actor(customer, "Customer")
Business_Actor(agent, "Service Agent")

Grouping(core, "Core Applications") {
  Application_Component(portal, "Customer Portal")
  Application_Component(crm, "CRM Suite")
  Application_Component(billing, "Billing Engine")
}

Application_Service(portalApi, "Portal API")
Application_Service(crmSvc, "Customer Data Service")
Application_Service(billingSvc, "Invoicing Service")

Rel_Serving(portalApi, portal, "Serves")
Rel_Realization(portal, portalApi, "Realizes")
Rel_Realization(crm, crmSvc, "Realizes")
Rel_Realization(billing, billingSvc, "Realizes")

Rel_Serving(portal, customer, "Serves")
Rel_Serving(crm, agent, "Serves")
Rel_Flow(crm, billing, "Customer Billing Data")

@enduml

Template 2: Technology Layer

Infrastructure reality: nodes, system software, networks. The view that reveals end-of-life databases.

@startuml
!include <archimate/Archimate>
left to right direction
!theme plain
!global $ARCH_SPECIAL_SHAPES = %true()
skinparam linetype ortho

title Technology Layer — Template

Grouping(dc, "Data Center / Cloud Region") {
  Technology_Node(appServer, "Application Server")
  Technology_Node(dbServer, "Database Server")
  Technology_SystemSoftware(jvm, "JVM Runtime")
  Technology_SystemSoftware(rdbms, "PostgreSQL")
  Technology_Artifact(appJar, "application.jar")
  Technology_Artifact(schema, "DB Schema")
}

Technology_CommunicationNetwork(lan, "Internal Network")
Technology_CommunicationNetwork(internet, "Internet")
Technology_Device(userDevice, "User Device")

Rel_Assignment(appServer, jvm, "Runs")
Rel_Assignment(dbServer, rdbms, "Runs")
Rel_Realization(appJar, jvm, "Runs on")
Rel_Realization(schema, rdbms, "Hosted by")
Rel_Flow(appServer, dbServer, "JDBC")
Rel_Association(appServer, lan, "Connected")
Rel_Flow(userDevice, internet, "HTTPS")
Rel_Flow(internet, appServer, "Exposes")

@enduml

Template 3: Business View

The slide leadership reads: capabilities, processes, and the roles that own them.

@startuml
!include <archimate/Archimate>
left to right direction
!theme plain
!global $ARCH_SPECIAL_SHAPES = %true()
skinparam linetype ortho

title Business View — Template

Strategy_Capability(sales, "Sales")
Strategy_Capability(fulfillment, "Fulfillment")

Business_Role(accountMgr, "Account Manager")
Business_Role(warehouse, "Warehouse Operator")

Business_Process(quoteToCash, "Quote-to-Cash")
Business_Process(orderHandling, "Order Handling")
Business_Process(shipping, "Shipping")

Business_Object(order, "Customer Order")
Business_Object(invoice, "Invoice")

Rel_Assignment(accountMgr, quoteToCash, "Performs")
Rel_Assignment(warehouse, shipping, "Performs")
Rel_Triggering(quoteToCash, orderHandling, "Triggers")
Rel_Triggering(orderHandling, shipping, "Triggers")
Rel_Access(orderHandling, order, "Reads/Writes")
Rel_Access(quoteToCash, invoice, "Creates")
Rel_Aggregation(sales, quoteToCash, "Contains")
Rel_Aggregation(fulfillment, shipping, "Contains")

@enduml

Template 4: Migration View (Current → Target)

One view per migration wave. Triggering and Flow relationships between plateaus make the program plan visible.

@startuml
!include <archimate/Archimate>
left to right direction
!theme plain
!global $ARCH_SPECIAL_SHAPES = %true()
skinparam linetype ortho

title Migration View — Template

Grouping(plateauNow, "Current State") {
  Application_Component(legacyApp, "Legacy Monolith")
  Technology_Node(onPrem, "On-Prem Server")
}

Grouping(plateauWave1, "Wave 1 — Rehost") {
  Application_Component(liftedApp, "Monolith on VM")
  Technology_Node(cloudVm, "Cloud VM")
}

Grouping(plateauTarget, "Target State") {
  Application_Component(serviceA, "Service A")
  Application_Component(serviceB, "Service B")
  Technology_Node(k8s, "Kubernetes Cluster")
}

Rel_Assignment(legacyApp, onPrem, "Runs on")
Rel_Assignment(liftedApp, cloudVm, "Runs on")
Rel_Assignment(serviceA, k8s, "Runs on")
Rel_Assignment(serviceB, k8s, "Runs on")

Rel_Triggering(legacyApp, liftedApp, "Wave 1: Lift & Shift")
Rel_Triggering(liftedApp, serviceA, "Wave 2: Decompose")
Rel_Triggering(liftedApp, serviceB, "Wave 2: Decompose")
Rel_Flow(serviceA, serviceB, "Events")

@enduml

Template 5: System Architecture Diagram

For the “plantuml system architecture diagram” searches: a single-system view showing how one application decomposes across layers — business context, application internals, and the technology it runs on.

@startuml
!include <archimate/Archimate>
left to right direction
!theme plain
!global $ARCH_SPECIAL_SHAPES = %true()
skinparam linetype ortho

title System Architecture — Template

Business_Actor(user, "End User")
Business_Process(coreProcess, "Core Business Process")

Grouping(appLayer, "Application Layer") {
  Application_Component(frontend, "Web Frontend")
  Application_Component(backend, "API Backend")
  Application_Component(worker, "Background Worker")
  Application_DataObject(store, "Application Data")
}

Application_Service(api, "Public API")

Grouping(techLayer, "Technology Layer") {
  Technology_Node(container, "Container Host")
  Technology_Node(database, "Database Node")
  Technology_SystemSoftware(engine, "Container Runtime")
}

Rel_Serving(frontend, user, "Serves")
Rel_Serving(api, coreProcess, "Supports")
Rel_Realization(backend, api, "Realizes")
Rel_Flow(frontend, backend, "REST/JSON")
Rel_Flow(backend, worker, "Jobs")
Rel_Access(worker, store, "Reads/Writes")

Rel_Assignment(frontend, container, "Deployed on")
Rel_Assignment(backend, container, "Deployed on")
Rel_Assignment(worker, container, "Deployed on")
Rel_Assignment(container, engine, "Runs")
Rel_Flow(container, database, "SQL")

@enduml

Usage Notes

Start ugly, refine later. Replace my element names with yours and render. A wrong diagram on screen beats a perfect diagram in your head.

One view, one question. If a template starts answering two questions at once, split it. Five small views age better than one cathedral.

Keep the header block identical everywhere. The !theme plain + $ARCH_SPECIAL_SHAPES + linetype ortho combination is the baseline that survives PlantUML updates. Style per-view below it, never inside the includes.

Direction variants are your layout steering wheel. Every relationship macro accepts _Up, _Down, _Left, _Right suffixes (e.g. Rel_Flow_Right(a, b, "label")). Use them when the automatic layout crosses lines — but if you need more than three or four, the diagram wants to be two diagrams.

Further Reading

Last Updated: August 2026