Model-Based System Architecture, 2nd Edition

14Processes

14.1 Systems Architecting Processes

14.1.1 Overview

The systems architecting processes are the core processes for the system architect. They comprise processes for architecture definition according to ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2015 [115], which overlap with the processes called “architecture conceptualization,” “architecture elaboration,” and “architecture evaluation” by the standard ISO/IEC/IEEE42020:2019 [110]. The mentioned standard ISO/IEC/IEEE42020 also describes more strategic or management-level processes like architecture governance and architecture management. It furthermore postulates an architecture enablement process that ensures the necessary preconditions for systems architecting (skills of the personnel, infrastructure, organizational and project processes and management systems, etc.).

Table 14.1 shows an example how some very common inputs and outputs of the systems architecting processes and also how the contributing roles could be defined. One major output is the system architecture description (see Chapter 8). 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 9.11.1), e.g. in a best practice document. This leads to a living document to be updated and used across projects.

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 ...