Architecture model

An architecture model is a single artifact – a diagram, table, or other representation – that captures one facet of a software system’s architecture, using modeling conventions suited to the concerns it addresses. Per ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010, an architecture view is composed of one or more architecture models, and the same model can be reused across more than one view where it speaks to the concerns of each.

Which conventions a given model follows – its notation, abstraction level, and the kinds of elements and relationships it may contain – is specified by its model kind, a governing template that lets readers interpret the model correctly without the author having to explain its notation from scratch each time.