Architecture Decisions and Rationale

The following decisions and rationale are recorded for this Architecture Viewpoint Definition (AVPD).

1) Why was the System (Abstract) Architecture Viewpoint Definition created?

The concept of a System Description has been used to create well formed descriptions of a system-of-interest that can be validated by various definitions of systems. The rationale for writing a system description is not visible in any method. The System Description is also an output from process 6.4.3 in ISO 15288:2015.

However, over time, there have been various investigations into system science publications and various authors who used the term view to describe an aspect of a system. This triggered the thinking that we write architecture descriptions as a normal way to describe the architecture of a system. In this way, a system description could be created from viewpoints to describe any system. The resulting document would be a system Architecture Description (AD).

In this final pass, the term architecture has been dropped leaving only System Description.

2) Revision to align with ISO 42010:2022

The following changes have been made to support the revision to ISO 42010:2022.

Output Name Change.

The name of the Architecture Framework Definition (AFD) has changed to Architecture Viewpoint Definition (AVPD). The primary purpose of the document is to establish the terminology / ontology for a system-of-interest. The key output of this work is the definition of the viewpoints for the Architecture Description Framework.

Alignment with new terminology

The Architecture Framework name has changed to Architecture Description Framework.

Incorporate Structuring Formalism

Integrate the structuring formalism as part of the Architecture Viewpoint Definition (AVPD).

NOTE: CAFF terminology retained until the CAFF can be revised.

3) Revision to System (Abstract) Model: Environment / Boundary / SoI

The following changes have been made to support update to the System (Abstract) Model.

  • Environment includes relevant systems plus the system-of-interest.

  • Boundary is between System-of-Interest and other identified systems.

  • System-of-Interest is associated with a System Class and exhibits an architecture

  • Top part of the System Model relates to Environment and lower part relates to definition of system.