IEEE 1471

Recommended Practice for Architecture Description of Software-Intensive Systems

In essence, this model for software or system architecture is designed to identify stakeholders and their concerns.  Each stakeholder has a different view of the system based on a different set of concerns. 

A viewpoint is developed for each and every view.  The viewpoint identifies a set of stakeholder concerns about the system being described.

Stakeholders - each type of person that has interest in the system or application being developed/implemented.  A stakeholder has different sets of concerns.  For example, an operator cares if a screen update is slow and a financial manager cares if the project is within budget.

Example stakeholders:

  • Operator or end user
  • Maintenance Technician
  • Production Manager
  • IT Manager
  • Financial Manager

Concern - a key interest that is important to a stakeholder that determines acceptance of the system.  This is totally different depending on the actual stakeholder.

Example concerns:

  • Operator - Can I easily navigate app and is data right
  • Maintenance Technician - Can I make online edits without stopping production?
  • IT Manager - Does system run for at least 30 days?
  • Financial Manager - Is it withing my budget?

View - a representation of a whole system from the perspective of a set of concerns.

Viewpoint - a specific set of concerns and the representation and modeling techniques used to show/describe the architecture that addresses those concerns.

System - a collection of components used to accomplish a specific function or a set of functions.

Forensic IT can help you implement your new system using the IEEE1471 standard.  Contact us for more information.

Some helpful documents and links:

Overview of IEEE 1471

IEEE 1471 Standard