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This structured approach facilitates a comprehensive understanding of organisational dynamics, supporting informed decision-making and effective enterprise architecture practices.
Relationship roles
Each link between an organisation unit and a domain entity can be classified using the following roles:
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Role
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Role types for inter-unit domain relationships
Role type | Definition | Usage guidelines |
|---|---|---|
Owning unit |
The unit accountable for the governance, lifecycle, and quality of the domain entity (e.g. |
Utilising unit
capability, information asset, or policy). | There should be only one owning unit per entity. Ownership includes strategic alignment, funding decisions, and compliance responsibility. |
Providing unit |
Delivers the outputs or services of the domain entity to other units.
Consuming unit
Receives or depends on the outputs or services of the domain entity.
Custodian unit
Maintains the authoritative or source record for the domain entity.
Dependent unit
Relies on the domain entity for operational or strategic execution.
Supported unit
Gains business value through a domain entity but is not directly consuming it.
Governing unit
The unit that delivers the core functionality, service, or resource associated with the domain entity. | A unit may provide for multiple consuming units. May or may not be the same as the owning unit. Must coordinate service delivery or access management. | |
Consuming unit | The unit that actively uses the outputs or results of the domain entity to perform its own operations. | Typically refers to service consumption or data usage. Consumption should be traceable to specific processes or value streams within the consuming unit. |
Utilising unit | A broader term than consuming, denoting any unit that benefits from the domain entity, even if indirectly (e.g. benefits from insight, capability). | Use when a unit depends on value derived from the entity but does not consume or operate it directly (e.g. using KPIs or policy effects). |
Custodian unit | The unit responsible for maintaining integrity, accuracy, and compliance of an information or data entity. | Commonly applied to information, records, and policies. The custodian ensures the content remains authoritative, secure, and consistent with standards. |
Dependent unit | The unit whose ability to achieve its objectives relies on the effective functioning of another unit’s domain entity. | Use to highlight indirect or downstream impacts, especially in strategic or compliance-sensitive environments. |
Supported unit | The unit that gains operational advantage or risk reduction as a result of another unit’s domain activity, but is not actively consuming it. | Typically used where benefit is derived passively (e.g. safety improvement from another unit's policy implementation or data cleansing initiative). |
Governing unit | The unit responsible for setting rules, standards, or oversight mechanisms for the domain entity and ensuring compliance across all related units. | Typically applies to policies, regulatory frameworks, or enterprise architecture standards. Governing units may audit, direct, or override other roles to ensure alignment. |
These roles allow for precise modelling of interdependencies, enabling traceability, governance, and impact analysis across organisational functions.
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The following domain types may be used as the focal point for inter-unit relationships:
Domain | Typical inter-unit relationship usage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
Capability | Owning, utilising, supporting, consuming, dependent, custodian | Most commonly used; a central anchor for inter-unit coordination |
Information | Providing, consuming, custodian, dependent | Typically shared across units with a clear lineage of stewardship |
Service | Owning, providing, consuming | Represents operational service dependencies between units |
Value stream | Shared, contributing, dependent | Highlights collaborative delivery of customer or internal value |
Initiative | Supported by, accountable to | May be indirectly implied rather than structurally modelled as a relationship |
Product | Supported, owned, developed by | Used sparingly in inter-unit context; product-level relationships tend to be value stream mediated |
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Provided by: Learning Services Team (providing unit)
Consumed by: All departments (consuming units)
Governed by: People Strategy Group (custodian governing unit)
Defining these relationships clarifies responsibility for experience quality, data, and outcomes.
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To enhance the usefulness of inter-unit domain relationships in organisational analysis, a numeric relationship strength value may be added. This value provides a relative indication of the intensity, criticality, or frequency of interaction between an organisational unit and the domain entity. It is intended to assist in prioritising governance, resource allocation, or change management efforts.
Scale
Value | Description |
|---|---|
1 | Very weak – minor or occasional interaction |
2 | Weak – intermittent or low-impact interaction |
3 | Moderate – regular involvement or mutual dependence |
4 | Strong – frequent and important interaction |
5 | Very strong – mission-critical, embedded, or highly interdependent |
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