Architecture design concepts · 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, socio political, legal, ethical or regulatory, and new ones can surface while architecture decisions are being taken.
What this term settles
A concern belongs to a stakeholder, not to a document. The definition also says concerns can emerge during the work, which is a warning against treating the concern register as fixed at kick off. It legitimises reopening the register when a decision creates a new concern.
What to do in your practice
Keep a concern register with the concern, the stakeholder, the type, the decision it affects and the status. Add a column for concerns that emerged after a decision. Review the register at each gate, not only at the start.
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
- A concern register with stakeholder, type and status.An auditor asks which concerns were known and how each was addressed.
- A record of concerns that emerged during the work.Shows the practice responded to new information rather than defending the plan.
- The decision to concern trace.Lets a reviewer test whether the architecture addresses what mattered.
- The closure note for each concern.Distinguishes addressed from accepted and from open.
Common gaps this page catches
- Concerns are collected once at kick off and never updated.
- Concerns are recorded without the stakeholder, so ownership is unclear.
- Regulatory and ethical concerns are held by compliance outside the architecture record.
What to prepare before publication
Add the emerged after decision column to the register. At the next gate, ask each stakeholder what concern has appeared since the last review. Record the answers and any architecture change they trigger.
Related units
Source. ISO/IEC/IEEE DIS 42024, Clause 3.4.9, 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