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FRAMEWORKS - HOPEX NAF > HOPEX NAF Concept Summary > Definitions of the Main HOPEX Concepts

Definitions of the Main HOPEX Concepts

Artifact	An artifact is any element in the physical domain that is not a system or an organizational element (where organizational includes people). An Artifact can represent a physical system, sub-system, platform, component or simply a physical item that has specific attributes.
Business Capability	A Business Capability is a set of features that can be made available by an enterprise.
Capability Configuration	A capability configuration consists of a Resource Architecture attached to a capability of the NAV architecture.
Constraint	A constraint is represented by a control or a business rule that must be applied during processing.
Content	Content designates the content of a message or a message flow, independently of its structure. Content may be used by several messages or message flows, since it is not associated with an sender and a destination.
Database	A database stores data physically or logically.
Functional Activity	A functional activity is an identifiable phase or step within a functional process.
Functional Process	A functional process is an end-to-end collection of functional activities that creates an outcome for a customer, who may be the ultimate customer or an internal end-user of the functional process.
Interaction	An Interaction represents a contract between entities in a specific context inside or outside a company. These entities can be organizations, activities, or processes. The content of this contract is described by an exchange contract.
Interaction Scenario	An interaction scenario lists all the communications that takes place within an operational node for a particular scenario (context).
Library	Libraries are collections of objects used to split HOPEX repository content into several independent parts. They allows virtual partition of the repository. In particular, objects owned by different libraries can have the same name.
Master Plan	A master plan is a long term outline of a project. It groups a set of consistent milestones and planned items temporally constrained against these milestones.
Needline	Needlines group together internal operational flows.
Objective	An objective is a goal that a company/organization wants to achieve, or the target set for a business process or an operation. An objective allows you to highlight the features in a business process or operation that require improvement.
Operational Node	An operational node is a node that performs a role or a mission. It is a representation of an element of architecture that produces, consumes or processes data.
Project	Projects are implemented to produce required deliverables that enable reaching different states.
Request Point	Request points are used to interact with the node that is considered to be the consumer in the interaction.
Requirement	A requirement is a need or expectation explicitly expressed, imposed as a constraint to be respected within the context of a project. This project can be a certification project or an organizational project or an information system project.
Resource Architecture	A resource architecture is the combination of physical and organizational assets configured to supply a capability.
Sequence Flow	A sequence flow is used to show the order in which the steps of a function will be performed. It has only one source and one target.
Service	A service is a type of delivered functionality, specified independently of the capabilities that provide it. The different services are classified as operations, application services, information services
Service Definition	A Service definition transfers content between operational nodes.
Service Point	A service point is used to interact with the node that is considered to be the provider of the information exchanged.
Stage	An enterprise stage is a past, current or future stage of an enterprise plan.
Standard	A standard is a definition or format that has been approved by a recognized standards organization or is accepted as a de facto standard by the industry.
State Machine	A state machine is a set of states and transitions governing the state changes that can match any time-dependent object.
System Process	A system process is the executable representation of a process. The elements that formalizes a system process are the events of the workflow, the tasks to be carried out during the processing, the algorithmic elements used to specify the way in which the tasks follow on each other, the information flows exchanged with the participants. In the BPMN notation, the system process represents a sub-process from the system point of view.
System Function	System functions are tasks performed by the IT system and are described in a system process.
Timeline	A timeline is used to create one or more calendars for the overall architecture, with dates and events that are common to everyone in the organization. These calendars can then be linked to Master Plans of the architecture to benefit from the timespots defined in the timelines.
Vision	A Vision is the ultimate, possibly unattainable, state the enterprise would like to achieve. A Vision is often compound, rather than focused toward one particular aspect of the business problem. A Vision is supported or made operative by Missions. It is amplified by Goals.