systeemkaart

Systeemkaart is a Dutch term that translates roughly to “system map.” In information technology and information management, it refers to a representation—often a diagram or registry—that shows an organization’s information systems and how they relate to one another. A systeemkaart provides a consolidated view of assets, data flows, interfaces, dependencies, and governance boundaries.

The primary purpose of a systeemkaart is to support overview and planning. It helps with enterprise architecture, risk management, change and incident management, and business continuity planning. By documenting what assets exist, who owns them, what data they process, and how they connect, organizations can better assess impact, identify single points of failure, and plan for upgrades or decommissioning.

Typical components include assets such as applications, databases, servers, networks, and services; data flows and interfaces; dependencies between systems; security boundaries; owners or custodians; and lifecycle or compliance status. A systeemkaart can be a visual diagram, a metadata database, or a combination of both, and is often derived from or linked to other inventories like a CMDB, asset registries, or service catalogs.

Creation and maintenance are usually the remit of enterprise architecture or IT governance teams. It may follow established frameworks or standards and is maintained through regular updates, data quality checks, and cross-domain collaboration to ensure accuracy and usefulness.

Usage examples include conducting impact analyses for changes, supporting security and compliance reviews, enabling capacity planning, and guiding procurement and modernization efforts. In some contexts, the term is used for sector- or government-specific maps of ICT assets within the public sector.

See also: enterprise architecture, CMDB, dependency mapping, data governance.