Overview
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020:2019 - Software, systems and enterprise - Architecture processes - is an international standard that defines a coherent set of process descriptions for the governance, management and performance of architecture activities. It covers processes for governing and managing a collection of architectures and for the architecting of entities, plus an enablement process to support those activities. The standard is applicable at the project level and across organizations, throughout the lifecycle of architectures and at any stage of architecture entities.
Keywords: ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020:2019, architecture processes, architecture governance, enterprise architecture, systems architecture, software architecture.
Key topics and technical requirements
The standard organizes architecture activity into defined processes and supporting content. Major topics include:
- Architecture Governance process - objectives, decisions, compliance monitoring and governance work products.
- Architecture Management process - planning, managing an architecture collection, performance monitoring and closure.
- Architecture Conceptualization - problem-space characterization, solution-space synthesis, candidate architectures and concepts.
- Architecture Evaluation - objectives, criteria, methods, measurement techniques, analyses and findings.
- Architecture Elaboration - viewpoints, models, views, assessment and coordination with other architectures.
- Architecture Enablement - enablers, capabilities, services and resources to support architecting activities.
- Conformance and Tailoring - approaches to full and tailored conformance (including Annex A on tailoring).
- Metrics and measurement (Annex B), interactions with other processes (Annex C), and relationships with other standards (Annex D).
The document describes activities, tasks and expected work products for each process, plus implementation guidance and process characteristics without prescribing a single method or notation.
Practical applications and who uses it
ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020:2019 is intended for organizations and practitioners who need repeatable, governed architecture practices:
- Enterprise architects, systems architects, and software architects - to structure architecture lifecycle, evaluation and elaboration.
- Program and project managers - to integrate architecture governance and management with project controls.
- Architecture governance boards and compliance officers - to define directives, assess compliance and make governance decisions.
- Systems engineers and solution designers - for coordinating architectures across systems, projects and affected entities.
- Consultants and tool vendors - to align services and tooling with standardized architecture processes.
Typical uses: establishing an organizational architecture capability, managing architecture collections across programs, evaluating architecture options and ensuring consistent governance and traceability across lifecycle stages.
Related standards
Annex D maps relationships with other international standards. ISO/IEC/IEEE 42020:2019 is complementary to enterprise- and systems-architecture frameworks and standards concerned with modeling, requirements, systems engineering and lifecycle management.