A collaboration is defined as a (possibly temporary) configuration of two or more roles (of actors,applications or nodes), resulting in specific collective behaviour in a particular context.

Unlike a single role, a collaboration does not necessarily have a permanent status. Thus it may be a temporary collaboration. It may not require a special name and can be regarded as a "virtual" role.

A collaboration can occur when two or more roles need to fulfil specific interaction requirements. Collaborations represent the collective effort of combined roles.

The name of a collaboration should preferably be a noun.

Category: Layer and Active structure aspect

Examples: (At the business layer) the business roles of Sales Department and Advertising may form a temporary business collaboration in order to push a product to market.

Source: A generalization of the concepts defined at the Archimate business, application and technology layers.