This recommended practice addresses the activities of the creation, analysis, and sustainment of architectures of software-intensive systems, and the recording of such architectures in terms of architectural descriptions. A conceptual framework for architectural description is established. The content of an architectural description is defined. Annexes provide the rationale for key concepts and terminology, the relationships to other standards, and examples of usage.

This recommended practice addresses the architectural description of software-intensive systems. A software-intensive system is any system where software contributes essential influences to the design, construction, deployment, and evolution of the system as a whole. The scope of this recommended practice encompasses those products of system development that capture architectural information. This includes architectural descriptions that are used for the following: a) Expression of the system and its evolution b) Communication among the system stakeholders c) Evaluation and comparison of architectures in a consistent manner d) Planning, managing, and executi...

The purpose of this recommended practice is to facilitate the expression and communication of architectures and thereby lay a foundation for quality and cost gains through standardization of elements and practices for architectural description. Despite significant efforts to improve engineering practices and technologies, software-intensive systems continue to present formidable risks and difficulties in their design, construction, deployment, and evolution. Recent attempts to address these difficulties have focused on the earliest period of design decision-making and evaluation, increasingly referred to as the architectural level of system development. The ...