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Glossary

Glossary Term	IASA Preferred Definition
Application Architecture	An Application Architecture defines the structure and modularization of the Business Function part of an IT System. It takes into account dependency management, scalability, etc. An Application Architecture derives some but not all of its 'ilities from a Technical Architecture, and some but not necessarily all from a Business Architecture.
Application System	An automated collection of business functions, entities, modules, technology platforms, and documentation that performs a specified set of business functions.
Architect Skillset	Skillset of an Architect (see Architect) e.g.:include understanding business issues, requirements, and constraints; technology, generation of architectures, combining patterns to form an architecture specializing an architecture choosing how to resolve a concern detecting technical conflicts combining architectures.
Architectural Blueprint	An artifact or set of artifacts depicting appropriate views of technical concern for a particular case, for the purpose of complete hand-off to an implementation team. For example, in a corporate environment, such artifacts would include network details, data strucures, logical structure threading, deployment, etc.
Architectural Concept	An Architectural Concept is a documented thought, vision, or idea about an Architecture.
Architectural Concern	An issue or requirement having an architectural implication.
Architectural Style	An architectural style is firstly a reusable holistic design for designing and developing IT systems (i.e. a design for successful designs). Secondly, it describes a family of architectures that are related by clear properties and relationships.
Architectural Building Block	A reusable set of collaborating components that collectively address an architectural concern. E.g. persistence framework.
Architecture Description	A description, targeted to a specific audience, for the purpose of communicating relevant architectural concerns.
Architectural Element	The unique details and parts that together form the architectural style.
Architectural Framework	A partially specified, abstract architecture. Left unspecified is that which is customized for each instantiation or application of the architecture. A framework is an architectural pattern that provides an extensible template for applications.
Architectural Guide	Standard describing Architectural processes and artifacts.
Architectural Methodology	A collection of methods, procedures, standards, and recommended practices used to develop an architecture.
Architectural Pattern	A way of capturing and communicating recurring design ideas in architecture. A solution to a problem in context that is a reusable problem solving method. A pattern also has defined applicability that describes problems that it may be able to solve.
Architectural Prototype	A partial implementation or a model that allows the architect to explore and evaluate a proposed architecture
Architectural Repository	A mechanism for storing and managing architectural artifacts.
Architectural Scope	Defines breadth and depth of an architecture or architectural decision.
Architectural View	A partial [visual] representation of an architecture from the perspective of a related subset of concerns.
Architecture	Is the art and science of designing. In Information Systems context, see System Architecture.
Artifact	A tangible product of an architectural process, such as model, model element or document.
Business Architecture	Describes key business processes and rules of the business itself, independent of technology.
Business Function	Business Function is that behavior of an Application that is specific to the business for which the Application is produced. Business Function is function that helps a person or requesting program to perform a specified business task within the enterprise. Normally this means things like order entry, capacity planning, chip design, or oil refinery process automation. However, people working within IT also perform business functions. For example, a network manager's business function is the business of managing a network; a programmer's business function is that function that enables him or her to develop and test programs. Business Function can be subtyped into 1. Behavior - which may be manifested by such things as processes (e.g. fulfilling an order), algorithms (e.g. calculating a price), rules, and constraints. 2. Structure - which may be manifest by such things as GUI panels for Customer, DB tables for Customer, implementation of patterns such as Contract, and classifications such as whether both Customer and Supplier are to be implemented as Parties.
Business Pattern	Pattern of business processes used in Business Architecture
CBSE	Component Based Software Engineering. A type of Software Engineering using principles of Component Based Architecture.
Component Based Architecture	A lifecycle approach to architecting software solutions as collections of components. Applications produced using this approach are very flexible because of their component-based "plug and play" nature.
Component	A module that is designed to be easily replaced.
Core Concept PARE	Publicly-Accepted Reference Elements related to Core Concepts.
Core Concept	A Core Concept is a concept that is part of the enabling foundation of an Architectural Style or of a Software Architecture. Example: Component-Based Software Engineering is a Core Concept in the Convergent Architectural Style. Product Line is a Core Concept in some SOA Architectural Styles.
Corporate Architectural Style	A Corporate Architectural Style (CAS) is an Architectural Style that is practiced or preferred in a given Corporation.
Data Architecture	Type of structure and logical relationship amongst data elements, such as hierarchical model, network model, relational model, object model.
Development Methodology	A collection of methods, procedures, standards, and recommended practices used to develop software.
Distributed System	System comprising of components deployed across a network.
EAI	Enterprise Application Integration. Software that provides messaging, data transformation, process flow and other capabilities to simplify integration of applications deployed across an enterprise such as resource planning, legacy and other applications.
Enterprise Architecture	High level enterprise-wide Architecture mapping business needs to IT capabilities. The focus is on defining the relationships, flows and implementation of business processes, activities, functions, information, applications, data and technology in the enterprise, and IT changes necessary for implementing technology in response to changing business needs.
Governance	The process, decision rights and accountability framework used to manage architectural portfolios, development, and their variance. The rising interest in IT governance is partly due to compliance initiatives, as well as the acknowledgement that IT projects can easily get out of control and profoundly effect the performance of an organization.
Hardware Architecture	Architecture that is primarily concerned with the internal electrical (and, more rarely, the mechanical) interfaces among the system's components or subsystems, and the interface between the system and its external environment, especially the devices operated by or the electronic displays viewed by a user.
IT Landscape	The totality of actual architectures and systems that exist in an IT organization, which is often so large that views are required to comprehend it.
IT Management Concern	An issue or requirement having implications for management of IT systems.
Information Architecture	The Information Architecture focuses on the elements required to structure the information and data aspects of solutions and to design, build, test, install, operate and maintain the system of solution information. The key interests of this discipline include databases (relational, hierarchical and object-oriented), file systems and storage management, as well as document imaging and management, and information content acquisition and maintenance. IT Architects in this discipline typically must discover and define data-process relationships and data property requirements in such areas as source, location, integrity, availability, performance and age. It supersets Data Architecture. This term is used differently in the field of Usability.
Infrastructure Architecture	Design of infrastructures including servers, storage, workstations, middleware, non-application software, networks, and the physical facilities that support the applications and business processes required by the client. Included in the focus areas is the critical evaluation and selection of the software and hardware components of the infrastructure. This discipline uses various techniques including modeling, simulating, and testing to validate the designs and selected products. Practitioners with this discipline are responsible for performance, availability and scalability of the infrastructure.
Leadership	The initiative of an individual to influence, motivate, and enable others to contribute toward the effectiveness and success of the organizations of which they are members.
Architectural Metamodel	Abstract model describing Architectural elements, concepts, artifacts, as well as their relationship.
Module	A module is a self-contained unit of a system, which has a well-defined interface and provides cohesive functionality.
Network Architecture	Network architecture focused on the networking aspects of solutions and solution components. Network architecture is a precise definition of the aggregated set of functions that the network and its components should perform. The definition itself is expressed as a set of protocols and services.
Organizational Dynamics	Structural and collaborational processes in an organization that include: 1) individual behavior (specific attitutes towards collaboration or knowledge sharing, competencies, character traits, motivation, change readiness, etc.) 2) group and network dynamics (power and influence pattern, sub-group behavior, team dynamics as in Group-dynamic games, etc.) 3) cultural dynamics (specific values, dominant mental and behavioral models, etc.)
PARE	Publicly Accepted Reference Element. E.g.: Zachman methodology, abstract factory pattern, etc.
Partition	Division of a set of architectural elements into mutually exclusive subsets.
Pattern	A solution to a problem that is a reusable within a defined applicability. Patterns may be classified as conceptual models, idioms, mechanisms, or frameworks. Patterns may come in the form of common solutions to process, business, software, and hardware problems. A pattern may contain sub-patterns. They can define: behaviors, structures, creational paradigms. They can resolve concerns, and raise new concerns. (See also Architectural Pattern)
Persona	In the context of software requirements gathering, a persona is a representation of a real audience group. A persona description includes a user’s context, goals, pain points, and major questions that need answers. Personas are a common tool in Interaction Design. Personas are given characteristics and are assumed to be in particular environments based on known users’ requirements so that these elements can be taken into consideration when creating scenarios for conceptualizing a site.
Platform Architecture	An architecture of hardware and/or software systems that offer basic services to a higher level system.
Portfolio	a.k.a. Application Portfolio. Applications related by common business or architectural concerns, managed as a set.
Performance Architecture	Architectural view addressing performance concerns.
Project	An endeavor to complete a specific defined deliverable or set of deliverables. A project has a specific begin date and end date, specific objectives and specific resources assigned to perform the work.
Quality Attribute	A property of a work product or goods by which its quality will be judged by some stakeholder or stakeholders. Quality attribute requirements such as those for performance, security, modifiability, reliability, and usability have a significant influence on the software architecture of a system.
Requirement	A condition or capability to which an IT system must conform. Good requirements should be: Necessary, Non-ambiguous, Concise, Consistent, Complete, Reachable, Verifiable, Clear.
SOA	A type of business component architecture that is based on synchronous interaction of distributed descrete platform-independent stateless service components (often called services or web-services).
Scenario	"Short stories" that describe a system interaction with respect to some quality attribute. Typically, the focus would be on three kinds of scenarios: use case - anticipated uses of the system, growth - anticipated changes to the system, and exploratory - unanticipated stresses to the system (uses and/or changes)
Architectural Scope	Scope is intended to define the applicability and boundaries of the Architecture determined by the business problem.
Security Architecture	Security Architecture is the part of the System Architecture that addesses the security requirements of an application and its infrastructure.
Software Architecture	It is that part of the System Achitecture concerned with software components and their relationships.
Solution Architecture	The architecture required to solve a business problem.
Stakeholder	An individual, team, or organization (or classes thereof) with interests in, or concerns relative to, a system (taken from ANSI/IEEE Std 1471-2000).
System Architecture	The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution. A set of inter-related patterns that structure modules and data and provide behaviors. A representation of a system in which there is a mapping of functionality onto hardware and software components, a mapping of the software architecture onto the hardware architecture, and human interaction with these components.
System Concern	An issue or requirement having implications for the characteristics or functionality of a system.
System Design	Design of systems, including design of data/information flow, databases, user interfaces, and hardware/software configurations.
System-Specific Architecture	A concrete instance of System Architecture.
System	A collection of components organized to accomplish a specific function or set of functions.
Technical Architecture	One of the layers of the information systems architecture (e.g. business, data, applications, and technology). A Technical Architecture specifies the software and/or hardware technologies, technology standards.
Technical Concern	An issue or requirement having a technical implication.
Technical Strategy	High level technical plan or approach for supporting business goals. It is part of an organization's overall business strategy.
Technology Architecture	Architecture of implementation technologies.
Technology Platform	Technology environment supporting systems development and/or execution.
Viewpoint	A specification of the conventions for constructing and using a view. A pattern or template from which to develop individual views by establishing the purposes and audience for a view and the techniques for its creation and analysis. Examples given by SEI: the module viewtype (includes views whose elements are modules); the C&C viewtype (includes views whose elements are components and connectors); and the allocation viewtype (includes views that show allocation of software to structures in the software system's environment).
Viewpoit Library	A viewpoint library is the composition of multiple viewpoints used as a part of an architecture methodology.
Virtual Platform	Development and execusion environment that has been engineered specifically to raise the "level of abstraction" for the developer. It is treated as a product, is versioned, and conforms to a specific Architectural Style.
Web Architecture	Architecture of web applications. It usually includes some back end web server and clients components that are rendered via Web Browser.
Zachman Framework	The Zachman Framework is a framework for Enterprise Architecture which provides a formal and highly structured wholistic view of an Enterprise Systems Architecture. It uses a grid model based around 6 basic questions (What, How, Where, Who, When, and Why) asked of 5 nominated stakeholder groups (Planner, Owner, Designer, Builder and Subcontractor).