Model-Based System Architecture, 2nd Edition

12Typical Architecture Stakeholders

12.1 Overview

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

Requirements toward the system-of-interest lead to concerns in system architecture. Requirements engineers capture requirements in direct dialogue with people or entities they call “stakeholders” or “stakeholder representatives” in a requirements engineering context. Users of the system are very important stakeholders in requirements engineering. Furthermore, 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 (SA) 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 ...