ISO 42024 Revision Checker
ISO/IEC/IEEE DIS 42024 · Enterprise, systems and software, Architecture fundamentals Stage 40.99 Planning date 15 Sep 2027, an estimate 35 terms · 20 clause areas · 9 annex sections

Home / Glossary

Architecture design concepts · 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 includes what is later elaborated in a solution design.

  • definition
  • Term
  • ISO/IEC/IEEE DIS 42024
  • Last updated: 2026-10-21

What this term settles

This is the term that makes the split with solution design workable. Architecture design is a deliverable with a reader and a purpose. It can include architecture descriptions and an architecture information package. Once the term is in use, "the architecture is not finished" becomes a statement about missing information rather than a complaint about the team.

What to do in your practice

Define what architecture design must contain for the firm, in a checklist tied to the purpose. Keep it upstream of solution design in the method, and allow the two to run concurrently only where the interfaces are explicit. Record which decisions are architecture decisions and which are solution decisions.

Who it binds

The role that owns the practice area the term governs. A definition binds nobody on its own; it binds the reader who adopts the term in a method, a description or a contract.

Evidence an auditor or regulator asks for

  • The architecture design checklist and a completed example.
    Shows what the firm considers sufficient architecture design.
  • A decision split between architecture and solution decisions.
    An auditor asks who decided what, and at which level.
  • The handover record to the engineering effort.
    Shows the design was used as a basis, not filed.
  • A concurrency note where the two designs ran together.
    Explains how the team managed the risk of parallel work.
Ask your teamWhich information in this design is architecture design, and which is already solution design?

Common gaps this page catches

  • One design stage produces both, and no one can say which decision belongs where.
  • Architecture design is judged by document length rather than sufficiency for the next step.
  • The handover to engineering is a meeting, not a record.

What to prepare before publication

Take the last major design and split its contents into architecture and solution. Where the split is contested, write the rule the firm will use. Publish the rule with the checklist.

Related units

Source. ISO/IEC/IEEE DIS 42024, Clause 3.4.2, Terms and definitions. Open the official record. Retrieved 21 October 2026.

https://www.iso.org/obp/ui/en/#iso:std:iso-iec-ieee:42024:dis:ed-1:v1:en

ISO catalogue record 87510, the status, stage and page count.

Claim level: definition. The definition is in the public preview. This page states it in our own words and does not reproduce the text.

Last updated: 2026-10-21 · Markdown version · Check your practice