Architecture Description (AD)

Architecture Description (AD) is a specification that captures the details of an architecture design. UAP Templates are ready-made documents that provide a structured foundation for creating ADs in line with the UAP process model and guidelines. Using these templates streamlines documentation and ensures consistency, offering benefits such as:

• Time and cost efficiency – accelerates documentation and reduces effort.
• Design consistency – applies established UAP design guidelines.
• Process compliance – ensures alignment with the UAP process model.
• Quality assurance – improves clarity, completeness, and accuracy of designs.
• Standardization – unifies ADs within and across organizations.

Templates for Architecture Description

The templates for Architecture Descriptions are not yet standardized and are often tailored to specific organizational practices. However, there is a general consensus on the essential design elements that should be included in any architecture description. These elements ensure that the architecture is clearly communicated, systematically structured, and evaluable. The key components are as follows:

• Introduction, including the purpose of the document, the system of interest (SOI), relevant definitions, and the architecture design process applied.
• Schematic Architecture Design, representing the high-level organization of the system based on candidate architectural styles and their integration.
• View-specific Architecture Designs, including functional, information, behavioral, and deployment views that collectively capture the system from multiple perspectives.
• Design for Non-Functional Requirements, identifying architectural concerns, defining and applying tactics to satisfy quality attributes, and validating conformance.
• Architecture Evaluation, encompassing the selection and application of evaluation methods to assess architectural adequacy, consistency, and compliance with requirements.

These components together provide a coherent and comprehensive framework for describing software architectures in a manner consistent with recognized practices and international standards such as ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2011.

UAP Templates

UAP Templates are standardized document and diagram formats designed to support the systematic development and description of software architectures following the UAP. Each template corresponds to a specific activity, step, or task within the UAP, ensuring that architectural artifacts are produced consistently and comprehensively across projects. These templates guide architects in documenting key elements such as requirements refinement, system context analysis, schematic architecture design, view-specific designs, non-functional design tactics, and architecture evaluation. By providing structured sections, predefined notations, and example entries, UAP Templates promote methodological rigor, traceability, and clarity in architectural documentation, facilitating communication among stakeholders.

Moreover, the UAP Templates are adaptable to diverse system domains—such as management information systems, embedded systems, cloud-based applications, AI-driven systems, and real-time systems—allowing organizations to tailor them to specific architectural contexts while maintaining methodological consistency.

There are two types of UAP Templates: the Comprehensive Version and the Core Version.