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The 35 defined terms
ISO/IEC/IEEE DIS 42024 defines 35 terms in clause 3, in five groups: architecting, entity, architecture design, architecture description and entity life cycle. Every term has a page here with the definition in our own words, what it settles, the evidence to keep and a test you can apply to your own descriptions.
The vocabulary is the operative part of the document for most readers. It is also the part that is fully public: the ISO preview carries all 35 entries. The pages here do not reproduce the text; they state each definition in our words and show how to use it.
Start with the five terms that change the most conversations: architecture, architecting, architecture description, architecture design and concern.
3.2 Architecting concepts
| Term | Name | Definition in our words |
|---|---|---|
| 3.2.1 | Architecture | The fundamental ideas and the essential qualities that appear in an entity within its setting. The ideas include the decisions, principles and pattern... |
| 3.2.2 | Architecture feature | A fundamental idea or essential quality that is tied to value, covers the whole entity rather than one part, and is enduring. A feature of a component... |
| 3.2.3 | Architecting | The whole activity around an architecture: conceiving it, defining and analysing it, expressing and documenting it, communicating it, certifying that ... |
| 3.2.4 | Architecting principle | A fundamental belief, norm, rule or value that governs or guides the architecting effort itself, and that holds whatever entity is being architected a... |
| 3.2.5 | Architecture principle | A belief, norm, rule or value that concerns an architecture and shapes how the entity, its context and its life cycle are realised. |
| 3.2.6 | Architecture framework | The conventions, principles and practices for architecture related work that a domain of activity or a community of stakeholders has established. |
| 3.2.7 | Reference architecture | An architecture that gives a standard or shared way of handling a problem, a circumstance or an opening in a field, a domain of activity or an area of... |
3.3 Entity related concepts
| Term | Name | Definition in our words |
|---|---|---|
| 3.3.1 | Entity of interest | The entity that architecting and engineering work examines, creates, changes or otherwise influences. It can be an enterprise, a business component, a... |
| 3.3.2 | Solution entity | The entity of interest plus the other entities that keep it running across one or more contexts over its life, as the realisation of the architectural... |
| 3.3.3 | Environment | Everything outside an entity that could matter for a domain of interest: the surrounding entities, situations, conditions and circumstances. An entity... |
| 3.3.4 | Context | The part of the environment that bears on an entity: the entities, situations, conditions and circumstances that shape it, influence it, relate to it ... |
| 3.3.5 | Enterprise | A human venture or undertaking that tackles a situation or circumstance which is complex and challenging. In this document the word names the undertak... |
| 3.3.6 | System | A grouping of parts or elements whose combined behaviour or meaning is stated and is not present in any part alone. A complete system includes the equ... |
| 3.3.7 | Aspect | A part of the character or nature of an entity. Aspects pick a subset of an entity's properties, represented as attributes, so a model built on that a... |
| 3.3.8 | Dimension | A coherent group of aspects that belongs to a domain, a field of knowledge or a discipline. The aspects in a dimension share a type and are distinguis... |
3.4 Architecture design concepts
| Term | Name | Definition in our words |
|---|---|---|
| 3.4.1 | Design (noun) | The information that is necessary and sufficient to create, transform or understand an entity. |
| 3.4.2 | Architecture design | The information needed, and enough, to create, transform or understand an architecture. It comes out of architecting; it is not the activity, and it i... |
| 3.4.3 | Architecture information package | The work product of an architecting effort that carries the architecture design so that engineering and other architecture related work can build on i... |
| 3.4.4 | Engineering effort | The transformation of an architecture design for a solution entity into a solution design, by elaborating, refining, expanding and detailing it until ... |
| 3.4.5 | Solution design | The information required, and enough, to implement solution entities or to support further engineering work. It refines and expands the architecture d... |
| 3.4.6 | Solution information package | The work product of an engineering effort that carries the solution design so that implementation and other engineering related work can proceed from ... |
| 3.4.7 | Stakeholder | A role, position, person, organisation or class of these holding a right, a share, a claim or some other interest in an entity. Stakeholders can be di... |
| 3.4.8 | Stakeholder perspective | A lens through which an entity is perceived or considered, especially in relation to the concerns of stakeholders. Domains have customary perspectives... |
| 3.4.9 | Concern | A matter of interest, relevance or importance to a stakeholder, or one that has an impact on a stakeholder. Concerns can be technical, organisational,... |
3.5 Architecture description concepts
| Term | Name | Definition in our words |
|---|---|---|
| 3.5.1 | Architecture description | The work product used to express an architecture. Its purpose determines its scope, and it is complete when it deals with the architecture as that pur... |
| 3.5.2 | Solution description | The work product that expresses a solution entity. It usually covers several aspects of the entity over its full life cycle, including objectives, req... |
| 3.5.3 | Architecture view | An expression of an architecture that addresses concerns and reflects aspects. Its main job is to give people information they can use in practice, sh... |
| 3.5.4 | Architecture viewpoint | The rules by which an architecture view is created, read and used. A viewpoint is associated with stakeholder perspectives, frames their concerns, and... |
| 3.5.5 | Model | A representation of one entity, or a group of entities, in the conditions or situations that matter. A model is typically used to portray, specify, un... |
| 3.5.6 | Metamodel | A model that sets out which elements and properties a model needs. It defines an abstract syntax, the concepts that will be modelled, their relationsh... |
| 3.5.7 | Reference model | A model that offers a standard or shared way with a problem or circumstance that recurs. A reference architecture can rely on a reference model that h... |
3.6 Entity life cycle concepts
| Term | Name | Definition in our words |
|---|---|---|
| 3.6.1 | Life cycle | The phases or stages an entity passes through between conception and the point where it no longer exists. It begins when a need is identified and ends... |
| 3.6.2 | Life cycle phase | A focused group of activities, pitched at some level of abstraction, that develops and evolves an entity across its life cycle. Actual phases are inst... |
| 3.6.3 | Life cycle stage | A period in an entity's life cycle that corresponds to how far it has evolved. A stage marks major progress and an achievement milestone, and an actua... |
| 3.6.4 | Life history | The order of the actual phases an entity passes through in its lifetime. Actual phases can be grouped into actual stages, and these typically overlap.... |
Last updated: 2026-10-21