Software Engineering: Architecture (Definitions)

"The organizational structure of a system or component." (IEEE, "IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology", 1990)

"The structure (components, connections, and constraints) of a product, process, or element. The architecture of a particular application is defined by the classes and the interrelation of the classes. At another level, the architecture of a system is determined by the arrangement of the hardware and software components. The terms logical architecture and physical architecture are often used to emphasize this distinction." (Atul Apte, "Java Connector Architecture: Building Custom Connectors and Adapters", 2002)

"A term used to designate the structure/foundation of a computer system and its applications." (Margaret Y Chu, "Blissful Data ", 2004)

"A framework defining key elements of a product that includes the hardware (platform) and software components, their partitioning (structures, arrangement, and relations), and the rules governing the interactions (data transfer, control, error handling) between these components, and between these components and external entities (users and other systems). Partitioning describes the (static) structure and relations between the components, including (a) which software components reside on which hardware components, and (b) the nature and scope of each component (i.e., the functions and data allocated to each component). The rules for the dynamic interaction of the components include error detection, propagation, and handling; interprocess communication and synchronization; human/machine interactions ('look and feel'); fundamental data elements (definition, allowed values, range, precision, default value, internal representation, units of measure; standard coordinate systems; internal units of measure; and physical models. May optionally define design and construction constraints (e.g., specific COTS components to be used)." (Richard D Stutzke, "Estimating Software-Intensive Systems: Projects, Products, and Processes", 2005)

"The science or art of building. This includes the designing and planning process that occurs in problem solving." (Sharon Allen & Evan Terry, "Beginning Relational Data Modeling" 2nd Ed., 2005)

"In information processing, the design approach taken for developing a program or system." (Judith Hurwitz et al, "Service Oriented Architecture For Dummies" 2nd Ed., 2009)

"The specification of the largest-scale design optimization decisions for a system. This is divided into five primary views: subsystem and component architecture, concurrency and resource architecture, distribution architecture, safety and reliability architecture, and deployment architecture." (Bruce P Douglass, "Real-Time Agility", 2009)

[reference architecture:] "Provides a proven template of an architecture for a particular domain that contains the supporting artifacts to enable their reuse." (Martin Oberhofer et al, "The Art of Enterprise Information Architecture", 2010)

"An organized set of consensus decisions on policies, principles, services, common solutions, standards, and guidelines as well as specific vendor products and technologies used to provide information technology (IT)." (Craig S Mullins, "Database Administration", 2012)

"In information processing, the design approach taken in developing a program or system. " (Marcia Kaufman et al, "Big Data For Dummies", 2013)

[application architecture:] "Enterprise architecture domain focused on the logical knowledge of applications, their links, and their positioning in the system. By extension, the logical structure of the IS, which can include SOA components, data repositories, or elements to interface with the outside world." (Gilbert Raymond & Philippe Desfray, "Modeling Enterprise Architecture with TOGAF", 2014)

"Reference architecture serves as a blueprint for all enterprise information management (EIM) solutions in an enterprise. Therefore, it can be seen as the big picture view of information management for a given enterprise. The reference architecture has all the relevant solution components needed to build an end-to-end EIM solution for the enterprise and includes the layers - information sourcing, master information management, information integration and exchange, information warehousing, and reservoir and information delivery and consumption." (Saumya Chaki, "Enterprise Information Management in Practice", 2015)

"1.A formal description of a system, or a detailed plan of the system at component level, to guide its implementation (source: ISO/IEC 42010:2007). 2.The structure of components, their inter-relationships, and the principles and guidelines governing their design and evolution over time." (by Brian Johnson & Leon-Paul de Rouw, "Collaborative Business Design", 2017)

"The way the component parts of an entity are arranged, organized, and managed." (William Stallings, "Effective Cybersecurity: A Guide to Using Best Practices and Standards", 2018)

"The architecture of a software system (at a given point in time) is its organization or structure of significant components interacting through interfaces; these components comprise successively smaller components and interfaces." (Bruce MacIsaac & Per Kroll, "Agility and Discipline Made Easy: Practices from OpenUP and RUP", 2006)

"The fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution." (ANSI/IEEE)

"The structure of a system or service, including the relationships of components to each other and to the environment they are in" (ITIL)