What is MARIJ?
MARIJ (Model Architectuur Rijksdienst, or Model Architecture for Central Government) is the reference architecture that Dutch central government used from 2008 onwards to organise the processes, information provision and ICT of ministries, agencies and executive organisations coherently, as the government-wide elaboration of NORA. Development started in 2007, and in the summer of 2008 the Interdepartmental Committee for Central Government Operations (ICBR) adopted MARIJ 1.0. MARIJ was later succeeded by the Enterprise Architectuur Rijksdienst (EAR) and then by the RijksOverheid Referentie Architectuur (RORA). MARIJ itself is therefore historical, but its approach of a Project Start Architecture and assessment against government-wide frameworks has remained.
MARIJ helped Dutch central government digitalise consistently, coherently, securely and reusably, both within and across organisations. Its ideas live on in today’s central government architecture.
🧠 What was MARIJ intended for?
MARIJ emerged during the Vernieuwing Rijksdienst (Renewal of Central Government) programme: the cabinet wanted better policy, fewer departmental silos, more efficient working and a smaller civil service. To achieve that, central government had to start behaving as a single enterprise. MARIJ provided guidance from that enterprise perspective and became a steering instrument for the renewal, for the Compact Central Government programme (Compacte Rijksdienst) and for the central government I-strategy.
| Objective | Explanation |
|---|---|
| Uniformity and coherence | Alignment of architecture within and across central government bodies |
| Standardisation and reuse | Norms and requirements for products, services, processes, information management and ICT |
| Alignment with NORA | MARIJ 1.0 took the principles of NORA 2.0 as its starting point |
| Linking policy to delivery | Translating strategic goals into the design of IT and information provision |
| Assessment and risk control | Design guidelines, an assessment framework and support for procurement and governance |
The “Rijksdienst” domain in MARIJ was broader than the ministries alone. It roughly covered the core ministries, agencies, independent administrative bodies (ZBOs) and legal entities with statutory tasks (RWTs), with explicit attention to service delivery. It did not refer to one specific government service such as the RDW vehicle authority, but to central government as a whole.
📜 How did MARIJ develop?
| Period | Milestone |
|---|---|
| 2007 | Development starts, with alignment to NORA and a coherent architecture for central government as requirements |
| Summer 2008 | The ICBR adopts MARIJ 1.0 as the reference architecture alongside NORA for ministries and ICT projects |
| 2008–2011 | Annual themes ranging from “architecture is a matter of doing” to “steering and working with MARIJ is the norm” |
| November 2010 | MARIJ 2.0 is completed as a beta version in three documents (main document, working document, appendices) |
| From 2011 | Emphasis shifts to a government-wide generic I-architecture and the construction of the Enterprise Architectuur Rijksdienst (EAR) |
| 2021–2025 | The central government I-strategy names the importance of RORA, the successor of the EAR, in theme 3 |
| 8 March 2022 | The state secretary’s policy outline letter on digitalisation includes RORA |
The commissioning party was the DGOBR directorate-general of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations (BZK), through its Information Provision for Central Government directorate. ICTU provided Team MARIJ, which developed the model further. MARIJ 2.0 was deliberately released as a beta: administrative developments followed each other so quickly that the call for a genuine enterprise architecture for central government as a whole outweighed the need for another static reference document.
🧱 What did MARIJ consist of?
MARIJ was not a software product but a set of documents and instruments. MARIJ 1.0 comprised:
| Component | Purpose |
|---|---|
| MARIJ 1.0 | Main document with the architecture, norms and requirements |
| MARIJ Samengevat | Executive summary for managers and policy makers |
| Appendices | Elaborations and background material |
| Strategic Architecture Checklist | Checklist for strategic decisions |
| Project Start Architecture (PSA) template | Translation of the architecture into the frameworks for a single project |
| MARIJ assessment matrix | Checks whether a design complies with MARIJ |
| Positioning note | Places architecture alongside the business case, review and project plan |
There was also a modular training package of eight modules, from “Steering for coherence” and “MARIJ for architects” to “Architecture as a steering instrument compared with other steering instruments”. An online knowledge base, and later the EAR knowledge base, eventually replaced these static documents.
In terms of content, MARIJ followed the layered structure of the NORA family: from legal foundations and organisation through business architecture and information architecture to application architecture and technical architecture. Ministries now often model these layers in ArchiMate and work with a method such as TOGAF.
🔗 How does MARIJ relate to NORA and the other model architectures?
| Architecture | Domain | Relationship to MARIJ |
|---|---|---|
| NORA | Entire Dutch government | Overarching framework; MARIJ was its central government elaboration |
| GEMMA | Municipalities | Sister architecture; alignment needed for chain services |
| WILMA | Water authorities | Sister architecture, relevant when working with Rijkswaterstaat |
| PETRA | Provinces | Provincial model architecture with a comparable structure |
| EAR | Central government | Direct successor and replacement of MARIJ |
| RORA | Central government | Current central government reference architecture, successor of the EAR |
🔄 What came after MARIJ: EAR and RORA?
The EAR mapped the government-wide information infrastructure coherently and had to answer questions such as “What do we have?”, “What needs to be added?”, “How does it fit together?” and “Who decides on what?“. The EAR acted as a zoning plan and roadmap; its administrative presentation was called the i-Atlas. Parts of MARIJ were absorbed into the EAR knowledge base.
RORA is the current successor and has the following characteristics:
- Scope - the whole of central government, i.e. the legal entity of the State: ministries including their units, such as agencies, inspectorates, planning bureaus and ZBOs without their own legal personality
- Status - framework-setting on a comply or explain basis for ministries and their units; informative for ZBOs with their own legal personality, sui generis organisations and the High Councils of State
- Layers - all five NORA layers: foundations, organisation, information, applications and network
- Governance - the CIO Council (CIO-beraad) owns it and the CIO Rijk sponsors it; the ICBR formally adopts frameworks by including them in the Kaderboek; the RORA Architecture Council keeps the content up to date and advises the CIO Council
- Themes - including Cloud, plus a register of central government standards
If you still come across a reference to MARIJ in older project documents or tender documents, you will therefore find the current frameworks in RORA and the Kaderboek.
🏗️ Why is MARIJ relevant to OT?
MARIJ focused primarily on IT and business operations, but central government also manages a great deal of OT. Its architecture therefore has to connect both worlds:
| Organisation | OT applications |
|---|---|
| Rijkswaterstaat | Bridges, locks, tunnels, storm surge barriers, sensors and traffic management via SCADA |
| Defence | Embedded systems, field equipment and vehicle systems |
| Inspection bodies | Drones, measurement equipment and enforcement devices |
These assets come with their own requirements. Control systems often stay in service for twenty years or more, which turns legacy systems and lifecycle management into architectural questions. Rijkswaterstaat and Het Waterschapshuis therefore drew up the CSIR, a cybersecurity guideline for process automation that builds on the BIO and IEC 62443.
Architecture at central government level must therefore also take IT-OT integration, OT security in line with IEC 62443 and the Lifecycle Management of Embedded systems into account.
🔐 How does central government architecture align with security?
The BIO did not yet exist in the MARIJ era; it has applied only since 2020. Today’s central government architecture does operate within that framework:
- BIO - BIO2 was adopted on 23 September 2025 and has been legally mandatory since 15 August 2026, through the Cyberbeveiligingswet, for government bodies within the scope of that act
- Security by Design - security belongs in the design, not as an afterthought
- Generic controls - frameworks for Logging, access management, encryption and network segmentation
- OT assets - zones and conduits according to the Zones and Conduits Model, applicable to flood defences, tunnels and traffic infrastructure
🛠️ How can you apply MARIJ’s ideas today?
If you work for or with a central government body, you no longer use the MARIJ documents themselves, but you do use their approach:
- Determine the frameworks - check which RORA frameworks, standards from the central government register and NORA agreements apply to your assignment.
- Draw up a Project Start Architecture - translate those frameworks into concrete requirements for your project, as MARIJ already prescribed.
- Organise by layer - describe the change from legal foundations to technology and make the dependencies visible.
- Include OT explicitly - map control systems, network zones and suppliers, for example when renovating a lock or tunnel.
- Assess and explain - check the design against the frameworks and record deviations on a comply or explain basis.
An example: when replacing the control system of a movable bridge, the PSA records which BIO2 controls apply, which IEC 62443 zones are needed and how the link with a national traffic control centre works.
❓ Frequently asked questions
What does MARIJ stand for?
MARIJ stands for Model Architectuur Rijksdienst, the Model Architecture for Dutch Central Government. It is the reference architecture that central government used from 2008 as the government-wide elaboration of NORA.
Is MARIJ still current?
MARIJ is no longer current as a standalone document. It was succeeded by the Enterprise Architectuur Rijksdienst (EAR), which in turn was succeeded by the RijksOverheid Referentie Architectuur (RORA).
Who adopted MARIJ?
The Interdepartmental Committee for Central Government Operations (ICBR) adopted MARIJ 1.0 in the summer of 2008. ICTU developed MARIJ on behalf of the DGOBR directorate-general of the Ministry of the Interior and Kingdom Relations.
What is the difference between MARIJ and NORA?
NORA is the reference architecture for the entire Dutch government. MARIJ was its elaboration for central government, just as GEMMA is for municipalities and WILMA for water authorities.
Does central government architecture also apply to OT systems?
Central government architecture focuses mainly on business operations and IT, but OT assets of organisations such as Rijkswaterstaat fall under the same security frameworks, such as BIO2. For process automation, guidelines such as the CSIR and the IEC 62443 standard complement this.
Do MARIJ’s successors also apply to ZBOs?
RORA, the current successor of MARIJ, is framework-setting for ministries and their units. For ZBOs with their own legal personality RORA is informative, although a ministry can prescribe it to them through its commissioning of tasks.
📌 In summary
MARIJ was the central government translation of NORA for ministries and executive agencies, and it lives on in the EAR and today’s RORA.
MARIJ 1.0 was adopted in 2008 and gave central government norms, an assessment matrix and a PSA template for coherent digitalisation. It brought structure to digitalisation initiatives and bridged policy, IT and, where required, OT applications. If you work with Dutch central government today, you apply those ideas through the RORA frameworks, BIO2 and IEC 62443.