Your architecture is clear.
Your context isn't.
Wardley Mapping helps Enterprise Architects connect capabilities, systems, and roadmaps to competitive reality.
Your ArchiMate diagrams are precise but static. Executives ask: "So what? Where should we move next?" Wardley Mapping helps you answer that.
Why your current EA framework isn't enough
TOGAF, ArchiMate, and similar frameworks are strong at structure, layers, traceability, and governance. They give you a clear picture of what exists and how things relate.
But they are weak at showing context, modeling movement over time, making strategy visible, and explaining "why this roadmap now?" in a way business leaders instantly get.
ArchiMate tells you what exists. It doesn't tell you which parts matter most right now, or where you should invest next.
Typical EA frustrations
You know these problems. Mapping addresses them directly.
- Diagrams look perfect but don't change decisions.
- Stakeholders ask for "just one more view" without clarity on what matters.
- Technical roadmaps feel disconnected from market realities.
- Architects get pulled into solution detail instead of shaping direction.
- You can't explain why this capability should be built versus bought versus outsourced.
Wardley Mapping: the missing layer between ArchiMate and reality
ArchiMate tells you what exists and how things relate. Wardley Mapping shows for whom you deliver value, the value chain from visible to invisible components, where each component sits on the evolution axis, how things are likely to move over time, and where you can expect inertia, resistance, and risk.
You can map existing capabilities, processes, applications, and technologies as components on a Wardley Map. You can link those components back to EA artefacts and repositories. This lets you move from "nice model" to "what do we do next and why?"
Maps don't replace ArchiMate. They tell you which parts of your architecture actually matter right now.
What you'll learn when you bring mapping into EA
By learning Wardley Mapping as an Enterprise Architect, you will be able to:
- Connect business capabilities and technology stacks to user-visible value chains.
- Place capabilities, systems, platforms, and services on the evolution axis and reason about what to build, what to buy, what to outsource, and what to commoditise.
- Use maps to motivate roadmaps ("why modernise this platform now?").
- Reveal duplication, waste, and over-engineering where the market already provides commodities.
- Communicate strategy in a way that executives, product, and delivery teams can understand in one diagram.
- Use mapping to structure portfolio decisions, decommissioning, and sequencing of change.
You will not just learn "how to draw maps." You will learn how to integrate maps into EA practice, reuse existing EA artefacts, and make architecture conversations less political and more grounded in situational awareness.
How Wardley Maps sit alongside TOGAF and ArchiMate
Wardley Maps integrate directly with your existing EA frameworks. Here's how the concepts map:
Stakeholders / Customers
↔ ArchiMate business actors / roles
Value / Offerings
↔ Business services / products
Capabilities / Processes
↔ Business capabilities / processes
Systems / Apps / Data
↔ Application services, business objects, data models
Technology / Infrastructure
↔ Technology services, infrastructure components
Evolution
↔ Maturity models
You reuse your existing EA repository instead of starting from scratch. You get less effort (no duplication) and higher fidelity (well-defined components). You can still produce EA-compliant artefacts, but now driven by a map of the landscape.
Keep your frameworks. Add a map of the landscape they live in.
Want the rigorous version? Read the EA integration paper.
A formal treatment of how Wardley Mapping integrates with Enterprise Architecture.
"Wardley Maps in Enterprise Architecture"
Author: Graham McLeod
What it covers:
- Why Wardley Mapping is a good complement to EA
- How to integrate maps with meta-model driven EA
- Examples of typed components, layers, maturity, resistance, and trends
- How Wardley Maps can be embedded in an EA repository and toolchain
If you are the kind of architect who cares about meta-models, consistency, and formal integration, this PDF is for you. It shows that mapping is not a toy; it can be treated as a first-class EA technique.
Ready to bridge the gap?
You can learn mapping as an Enterprise Architect, integrate it with existing frameworks, and use it to make strategy and roadmaps more grounded.