Semantically Coherent Business Architecture Models: Integrating Capabilities, Value Streams, and Business Objects

In the face of increasing organizational complexity and continuous strategic change, business architecture models are expected to provide a coherent view of how strategy translates into value-creating activities. However, widely
used frameworks such as TOGAF struggle to support this coherence as core elements such as capabilities, value streams, and business objects are modeled in isolation, with unclear semantics and weak structural alignment. We
address this gap by developing a Capability-Object-Value Ontology (COVO) and a set of modeling constraints that enforce semantic coherence. Our approach, grounded in the Unified Foundational Ontology (UFO), establishes two
core principles: (1) a semantically integrated triad of capabilities, value streams, and business objects, unified by a value commitment, and (2) recursive coherence, ensuring that the same rules apply at every level of granularity.
This provides (1) a foundation for models that are semantically sound (2) at every level of detail, enabling architects to seamlessly and reliably zoom between different levels of abstraction. The ontology and modeling constraints
are illustrated by comparing a model of common, unconstrained practices with a constraint-compliant model, and are further demonstrated by a real-world example from the Dutch energy sector.