Notes by Brendan Foote
How to Build, Implement, and Use an Architecture Metamodel
Chris Armstrong, Armstrong Process Group, Inc.
Armstrong discussed the architecture-description standard UML model, showing how an architecture description expresses an architecture, fulfills the concerns of stakeholders, and more. He uses the difference between raw accounting data and the common views the way, say, a CFO would need to because of the way that an architecture is standardized by the RFC 42010 (that is, what subset of the entire UML model is particularly useful?). This leads to his refined viewpoint metamodel. His process group has added the “architecture scenario” to the metamodel, which he points out is not in conflict with the standard. This scenario is defined by a stakeholder, and it contextualizes an architectural concern. He goes on to show how stakeholders and concerns are also connected by architecture viewpoints, of which there are several types. Those types are defined differently depending on whether you talk to TOGAF, DoDAF, etc., but a modeling system should allow you to render your viewpoints in different ways for different consumers (e.g., a grid, diagram, catalog, or dashboard).



