Model-Based System Architecture

Chapter 10Typical Architecture Stakeholders

10.1 Overview

Stakeholders in the context of system architecture are the main focus of this chapter. However, we first need to set a larger context, because stakeholders are a topic in requirements engineering as well.

Requirements toward the system of interest lead to concerns in system architecture. Requirements engineers capture requirements in direct dialog with people or entities they call “stakeholders” or “stakeholder representatives” in a requirements engineering context. The users of the system are very important stakeholders in requirements engineering, and also acquirers, regulatory bodies and entities performing marketing, production, training, operations, and maintenance will typically have requirements toward the system of interest. It is a matter of taste whether these people or entities are explicitly identified as stakeholders in a system architecture context or whether the system architect will consider the requirements engineering people to be the actual architecture stakeholders when the concern is to satisfy requirements.

Apart from their role as potential providers of requirements, some people or entities may have more interaction with the system architect and more concerns to be addressed during systems architecting than covered within the scope of the requirements engineering processes. They are the ones who should collaborate with the system architect, which makes them potentially important stakeholders in ...