Different Pillars enabling to handle the big variety of contents, from business architecture to Information and Technology models, and their shared nature across many users, a rigorous internal organization of the repository.
Different Layers to include 3 technology platform-independent layers at the higher levels, and the Physical, platform-specific layer(e.g. XSD-specific layer whose models are automatically generated from the previous layers.
For a given pillar, it is suggested to model layers top-down, modelling high level before full detail, and platform-independent business models before platform-specifics
Each model artifact will be located in a specific pillar and layer.
the AIDM also needs to be able to offer differentiated views ( often diagrams ) to various stakeholders, introducing a 3rd dimension