Model-Based System Architecture

Chapter 12Processes

12.1 The Systems Architecting Processes

The systems architecting process is the core process for the system architect. Table 12.1 shows an example how the inputs and outputs of the process as well as the contributing roles could be defined. The major output is of course the system architecture description (see Chapter 6). But also the learnings from carrying out the systems architecting work should be captured during the work and should be phrased as heuristics (see Section 7.10.1), for example, in a best practice document. This leads to a living document to be updated and used across projects.

Table 12.1 Examples of Inputs, Outputs, and Contributors for the Systems Architecting Process

Input to the systems architecting process	System context Requirements Use cases Quality criteria Heuristics, patterns, and best practices Roadmaps Domain knowledge
Outputs from the systems architecting process	Architecture description Updated heuristics and best practices
Contributing roles	System architect (drives the process) Stakeholders (provide input and consume outputs)

The actual process for producing the system architecture description consists of doing the architecting and validating or reviewing¹ and approving its output.

A very simple explanation of systems architecting is to translate requirements into an allocation of functionality and performance to subsystems. However, in many cases one may need to collect the most architecturally relevant ...