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MetamodelReference MaterialReference Material

Reference Material

What Is Reference Material in ArchRepo?

Reference Material is a catalogue of external or pre-existing documents, standards, policies, and guidelines that inform, constrain, or provide authority for the solution. These are not documents the project produces — they are documents the project must be aware of, comply with, or align to.

Examples of what belongs in the Reference Material catalogue:

  • Standards — ISO 27001, ISO 9001, GDPR, PCI-DSS, SOX
  • Internal policies — Data Retention Policy, Information Security Policy, Procurement Policy
  • Regulatory guidance — FCA guidelines, ICO guidance on data processing, sector-specific regulation
  • Industry frameworks — TOGAF, ITIL, BPMN standards, accessibility standards (WCAG)
  • Contractual documents — Statement of Work schedules, SLA terms, data processing agreements
  • Business documents — Approved naming conventions, a specific strategy document, a board-approved business case

Reference Material vs Artefacts

Reference Material and Artefacts both involve documents, but they serve different purposes:

  • Reference Material is pre-existing material the project uses — standards, policies, and documents that already exist and that the solution must align to or comply with.
  • Artefacts are deliverables the project produces — design documents, specifications, reports, and presentations created during the project.

Both are catalogued in ArchRepo, but separately. Reference Material is a library of authorities; Artefacts is a register of outputs.

Why Maintain a Reference Catalogue?

Documenting Reference Material in ArchRepo provides:

  • Traceability to source authority — requirements, design decisions, processes, and other model items can be linked back to the standard or policy that mandates or informs them; this makes it clear why decisions were made
  • Compliance visibility — a single list of the standards and regulations the solution must meet, visible alongside the architecture; useful for compliance reviews and audits
  • Shared library — avoids multiple team members maintaining separate lists of the same materials; everyone references the same catalogue entry with the same link
  • Scope justification — when a requirement exists because of a specific regulation or policy, linking it to the relevant Reference Material item records that justification explicitly

How Reference Material Is Used

Reference Material acts as a target for links from other items across the architecture. The implements relationship (visible on many model types) is used to link an item to the Reference Material that informs it:

  • A Business Requirement implements a Reference Material item to record that it was derived from a specific policy or standard
  • A Design Decision implements a Reference Material item to record the authority that guided the decision
  • A Business Process implements a Reference Material item to record a standard or regulation the process must comply with
  • An Assumption implements a Reference Material item to record the document being assumed to apply

Reference Material items have no outbound relationships of their own — they are the target, not the source.

Fields Reference

See Reference Material Fields for a description of each field and guidance on what to record.

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Recoverability vs AvailabilityReference Material Fields