ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019

Software, systems and enterprise — Architecture evaluation framework

This document specifies the means to organize and record architecture evaluations for enterprise, systems and software fields of application. The aim of this document is to enable architecture evaluations that are used to: a) validate that architectures address the concerns of stakeholders; b) assess the quality of architectures with respect to their intended purpose; c) assess the value of architectures to their stakeholders; d) determine whether architecture entities address their intended purpose; e) provide knowledge and information about architecture entities; f) assess progress towards achieving architecture objectives; g) clarify understanding of problem space and of stakeholder needs and expectations; h) identify risks and opportunities associated with architectures; and i) support decision making where architectures are involved. NOTE This document addresses the evaluation of an architecture and not an evaluation of the architecture description's suitability. Matters concerning the evaluation of the architecture description fall within the scope of the architecture conceptualization and architecture elaboration processes as defined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020. However, it is sometimes the case that the architecture description is evaluated concurrently with the evaluation of the architecture itself. The entity being evaluated can be of several kinds, as illustrated in the following examples: enterprise, organization, solution, system, subsystem, business, data (as a data element or data structure), application, information technology (as a collection), mission, product, service, software item, hardware item, etc. The kind of entity can also be a product line, family of systems, system of systems, etc. It also spans the variety of applications that utilize digital technology such as mobile, cloud, big data, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), web, desktop, embedded systems, and so on. The generic Architecture Evaluation (AE) framework specified in this document can be used in support of the Architecture Evaluation process defined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020. Specific frameworks can be derived from this generic framework, which can provide a mapping to the system life cycle processes in ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 or to the software life cycle processes in ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207.

Logiciel, systèmes et entreprise — Cadre d'évaluation de l'architecture

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 23-Jul-2019
• ICS: 35.080 - Software
• Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 - Software and systems engineering
• Drafting Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7/WG 42 - Architecture
• Current Stage: 6060 - International Standard published
• Due Date: 28-Aug-2020
• Completion Date: 24-Jul-2019

Standards Content (Sample)

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC/
STANDARD IEEE
42030
First edition
2019-07
Software, systems and enterprise —
Architecture evaluation framework
Logiciel, systèmes et entreprise — Cadre d'évaluation de
l'architecture
Reference number
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)
©
ISO/IEC 2019
©
IEEE 2019

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ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)

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© ISO/IEC 2019
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ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)

Contents Page
Foreword .v
Introduction .vi
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Conceptual foundation . 5
4.1 General . 5
4.2 Architecture evaluation context . 6
4.3 Architecture evaluation tiers . 7
4.3.1 Evaluation synthesis . 7
4.3.2 Value assessment . 9
4.3.3 Architectural analysis .11
4.4 Architecture evaluation conceptual model .12
4.5 Comparison between assessment and analysis.13
4.6 Architecture evaluation factors .14
4.7 Customized architecture evaluation frameworks .14
4.8 Tailoring .15
5 Conformance .16
5.1 General .16
5.2 Creating AE artifacts.16
5.3 Using generic AE framework to conduct AE efforts .16
5.4 Verbal forms for the expression of provisions .17
6 Architecture evaluation framework elements .17
6.1 Evaluation synthesis .17
6.1.1 General requirements .17
6.1.2 Architecture evaluation objectives .18
6.1.3 Architecture evaluation approaches .19
6.1.4 Architecture evaluation factors .19
6.1.5 Architecture evaluation results .20
6.2 Value assessment .20
6.2.1 General requirements .20
6.2.2 Value assessment objectives .21
6.2.3 Value assessment methods .21
6.2.4 Value assessment factors .22
6.2.5 Value assessment results .22
6.3 Architectural analysis .23
6.3.1 General requirements .23
6.3.2 Architectural analysis objectives .23
6.3.3 Architectural analysis methods .24
6.3.4 Architectural analysis factors .25
6.3.5 Architectural analysis results.25
7 Customized architecture evaluation frameworks .26
7.1 General requirements .26
7.2 Framework requirements for architecture evaluation .27
7.3 Framework requirements for value assessment .27
7.4 Framework requirements for architectural analysis .27
7.5 Framework requirements for architecture evaluation work products .27
8 Architecture evaluation work products .27
8.1 General requirements .27
8.2 Architecture evaluation plan.28
8.2.1 AE plan requirements .28
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ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)

8.2.2 AE plan recommendations .28
8.2.3 AE plan permissions .29
8.3 Architecture evaluation report .30
8.3.1 AE report requirements .30
8.3.2 AE report recommendations .31
8.3.3 AE report permissions .32
Annex A (informative) Value and quality concepts .34
Annex B (informative) Relationship to other standards .46
Annex C (informative) Architecture evaluation examples .48
Annex D (informative) Example architecture evaluation frameworks .64
Bibliography .74
IEEE notices and abstract .78
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ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that are
members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through technical
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work. In the field of information technology, ISO and IEC have established a joint technical committee,
ISO/IEC JTC 1.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for the
different types of ISO documents should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
rules given in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/directives).
IEEE Standards documents are developed within the IEEE Societies and the Standards Coordinating
Committees of the IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board. The IEEE develops its
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Institute, which brings together volunteers representing varied viewpoints and interests to achieve the
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While the IEEE administers the process and establishes rules to promote fairness in the consensus
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Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject
of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent
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expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT), see www .iso
.org/iso/foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 7, Software and systems engineering, in cooperation with the Systems and Software
Engineering Standards Committee of the IEEE Computer Society, under the Partner Standards
Development Organization cooperation agreement between ISO and IEEE.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/members .html.
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ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)

Introduction
The complexity of human-made systems has grown to an unprecedented level. This complexity leads
to new opportunities and greater challenges for organizations that conceive, develop, industrialize,
produce, maintain, utilize, recycle and dismantle enterprises, systems and software, and for various
stakeholders that are impacted by these things. To address these opportunities and challenges,
organizations increasingly apply concepts, principles, procedures and tools to drive better architecture
strategies, make better architecture-related decisions, create more useful and effective architectures
and improve architecture maturity. Architecture-related activities are not only strategic in nature; they
are tactical and operational as well. Furthermore, the use of architecture frameworks, architecture
description languages and generalist modeling languages have become common practice in commercial,
public service, government, civil and military domains.
The concept of architecture used in this document goes beyond the case where the architecture entity
is a system. Architecture is increasingly being applied to things not normally thought of as systems,
including entities with system-like structure and behavior such as enterprises, services, data, business
functions, mission areas, product lines, families of systems, software items, etc. This allows for a
more generalized usage of the concept of architecture when the evaluation elements specified in this
document are applied.
Architecture evaluations are performed for many reasons, such as:
a) determining if an entity of interest has been or is being architected in such a way that it fulfils its
intended purpose (or can be changed in a way that suits a new purpose);
b) evaluating the effectiveness and suitability of an architecture towards addressing stakeholder
needs and expectations;
c) identifying risks for mitigation;
d) identifying opportunities for the improvement of an entity or its architecture;
e) clarifying the problem space and stakeholder needs; and
f) assessing progress towards meeting architecture objectives.
Architecture evaluations can be performed on any kind of architecture, including a reference
architecture, an architecture for a family of systems or an architecture for a product line where there
are multiple kinds of architecture entities for a single architecture.
This document provides a generic, conceptual guiding framework that can be used for the planning,
execution and documentation of architecture evaluations. Execution is addressed by specification
of evaluation elements that can be used during performance of an evaluation effort. Planning
and documentation are addressed by specification of work products for the evaluation effort. An
organization using this document can establish specific frameworks for the work products and the
evaluation elements that can be used as the basis for multiple, recurring architecture evaluation
efforts. An organization can also establish tools, methods, best practices, capabilities and resources
based on the generic framework provided in this document. The generic framework makes it easier
to compare evaluations and evaluation frameworks used in specific cases. Implementation of the
proposed architecture framework will in time result in improvement of architecture maturity of the
organization.
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INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)
Software, systems and enterprise — Architecture
evaluation framework
1 Scope
This document specifies the means to organize and record architecture evaluations for enterprise,
systems and software fields of application.
The aim of this document is to enable architecture evaluations that are used to:
a) validate that architectures address the concerns of stakeholders;
b) assess the quality of architectures with respect to their intended purpose;
c) assess the value of architectures to their stakeholders;
d) determine whether architecture entities address their intended purpose;
e) provide knowledge and information about architecture entities;
f) assess progress towards achieving architecture objectives;
g) clarify understanding of problem space and of stakeholder needs and expectations;
h) identify risks and opportunities associated with architectures; and
i) support decision making where architectures are involved.
NOTE This document addresses the evaluation of an architecture and not an evaluation of the architecture
description’s suitability. Matters concerning the evaluation of the architecture description fall within the scope
of the architecture conceptualization and architecture elaboration processes as defined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020.
However, it is sometimes the case that the architecture description is evaluated concurrently with the evaluation
of the architecture itself.
The entity being evaluated can be of several kinds, as illustrated in the following examples: enterprise,
organization, solution, system, subsystem, business, data (as a data element or data structure),
application, information technology (as a collection), mission, product, service, software item, hardware
item, etc. The kind of entity can also be a product line, family of systems, system of systems, etc. It also
spans the variety of applications that utilize digital technology such as mobile, cloud, big data, robotics,
Internet of Things (IoT), web, desktop, embedded systems, and so on.
The generic Architecture Evaluation (AE) framework specified in this document can be used in support
of the Architecture Evaluation process defined in ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020. Specific frameworks can be
derived from this generic framework, which can provide a mapping to the system life cycle processes in
ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288 or to the software life cycle processes in ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207.
2 Normative references
There are no normative references in this document.
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the following terms and definitions apply.
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ISO/IEC/IEEE 42030:2019(E)

ISO, IEC and IEEE maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following
addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https: //www .iso .org/obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http: //www .electropedia .org/
— IEEE Standards Dictionary Online: available at: http: //ieeexplore .ieee .org/xpls/dictionary .jsp
1)
NOTE Definitions for other terms typically can be found in ISO/IEC/IEEE 24765 .
3.1
architecture
fundamental concepts or properties of an entity in its environment (3.7) and governing principles for
the realization and evolution of this entity and its related life cycle processes
Note 1 to entry: Architecture entity (3.3) is the term used in this document when referring to the entity being
architected or the entity subject to architecture processes. The fundamental concepts or properties of the
architecture entity are usually intended to be embodied in the entity’s components, the relationships between
components, and the relationships between the entity and its environment.
Note 2 to entry: The concept of architecture used in this document applies broadly to the entity being architected
or evaluated. This allows for a more generalized usage when the elements in this document are applied.
Note 3 to entry: The entity to be architected can be of several kinds, as illustrated in the following examples:
enterprise, organization, solution, system, subsystem, business, data (as a data element or data structure),
application, information technology (as a collection), mission, product, service, software item, hardware item,
product line, family of systems, system of systems, etc. It also spans the variety of applications that utilize digital
technology such as mobile, cloud, big data, robotics, Internet of Things (IoT), web, desktop, embedded systems,
and so on.
Note 4 to entry: Representation of the concepts or properties of an entity and governing principles is captured in
architecture models.
Note 5 to entry: Architectures can address a wide range of concerns (3.6) expressed, for example, through
architecture views and models, as illustrated in the following examples associated with particular kinds
of architectures such as: security architecture, functional architecture, physical architecture, resilience
architecture, etc.
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020:2019, 3.3]
3.2
architecture description
work product used to express an architecture (3.1)
Note 1 to entry: This document does not require the existence or use of an architecture description when
performing an architecture evaluation (3.4). Some value (3.10) assessment methods do not demand existence
of documented architecture models or views. Examples are customer focus group, expert panels and quality
workshops where sufficient knowledge of the architecture is in the people participating in use of these methods.
The same is true for architectural analysis in that not all methods applied here necessarily need an explicit
description of the architecture.
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011, 3.3, modified — The abbreviated term “AD” has been removed;
Note 1 to entry has been added.]
1) System and software engineering — Vocabulary, available at www .computer .org/sevocab.
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3.3
architecture entity
thing being characterized by an architecture (3.1)
EXAMPLE The following are kinds of architecture entities that can be dealt with by the architecture
processes: enterprise, organization, solution, system (including software systems), subsystem, business, data
(as a data element or data structure), application, information technology (as a collection), mission, product,
service, software item, hardware item, product line, family of systems, system of systems, collection of systems,
collection of applications, etc.
Note 1 to entry: When referring to the architecture itself of these architecture entities, it is common practice to
place the name of the kind of entity in front of the word architecture. For example, the phrase system architecture
is used when the thing being dealt with during the architecting effort is a system. Likewise, for the other kinds of
entities that are being dealt with during the architecting effort.
[SOURCE: ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020:2019, 3.6, modified — The words “considered, described, discussed,
studied, or otherwise addressed during the architecting effort” have been replaced with “characterized
by an architecture”.]
3.4
architecture evaluation
AE
judgment about one or more architectures (3.1) with respect to the specified evaluation objectives
EXAMPLE 1 Various kinds of judgments could be made during an architecture evaluation, such as validating
that architectures address the concerns (3.6) of stakeholders (3.9), assessing the quality of architectures
with respect to their intended purpose, assessing the value (3.10) of architectures or architecture entities to
their stakeholders, determining whether architecture entities address their intended purpose, providing
knowledge and information about architecture entities and identifying risks and opportunities associated with
architectures.
EXAMPLE 2 Examples of architecture evaluations are provided in Annex C.
Note 1 to entry: A decision regarding disposition of the architecture is usually outside the scope of an AE effort,
although it could be done in conjunction with the AE effort. The AE results are often reported to a decision maker
who makes the actual determination of disposition based on those results and sometimes also on other factors
(3.8) not considered by the AE effort. Sometimes this determination is called an “evaluation” but for the purpose
of this document, the evaluation is limited to just the judgment with respect to relevant evaluation objectives.
3.5
architecture evaluation framework
conventions, principles and practices for evaluating architectures (3.1) in a consistent and
repeatable manner
EXAMPLE Examples of AE frameworks are provided in Annex D for the following cases: Architecture Tradeoff
Analysis Method (ATAM), the Method Framework and QUASAR method and Analysis of Alternatives (AoA).
Note 1 to entry: This framework can be generic in nature or specific to a domain of application, a collection of
concerns (3.6) to be examined or a methodology. This document defines a generic AE framework and a specific
AE framework can be derived from the generic framework.
Note 2 to entry: An AE framework can enable AE efforts to be performed in a more consistent and repeatable
manner.
Note 3 to entry: The evaluation framework can consist of different sub-architecture frameworks for an entity
with many layers or levels. These could be defined and consolidated as part of the comprehensive architecture
framework package.
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3.6
concern
matter of interest or importance to a stakeholder (3.9)
EXAMPLE Affordability, agility, availability, dependability, flexibility, maintainability, reliability, resilience,
usability and viability are examples of concerns. Survivability, depletion, degradation, loss, obsolescence are
exam
...