A3 – Architecture Correspondence

The A3 Architecture Correspondence View identifies the high-level dependencies between architectures.

Concerns Addressed

• Traceability / dependencies between architectures.
• Re-Use of Architectures.

Background

ISO/IEC/IEEE42010 introduces the idea of architecture correspondence and correspondence rules. Quoting from ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010; “A correspondence defines a relation between AD elements. Correspondences are used to express architecture relations of interest within an architecture description (or between architecture descriptions). Correspondences can be governed by correspondence rules. Correspondence rules are used to enforce relations within an architecture description (or between architecture descriptions).”

NOTE: Although the concept of correspondence in ISO42010 is quite broad, the A3 View is only concerned with dependency view between architectures. The NAF has a number of relationships, used throughout the framework. Rather than identify each relationship in A3, those relationships are shown in “Key Elements and Their Relationships” and “Meta-Model” for each view.

Usage

• Dependency analysis across architectures.

Representation

• Tabular.

Graphical elements linked by tracing lines.

Detailed View Description

An A3 View is generally just a list of dependencies between architectures. Those dependencies will generally occur because one architecture is re-using or referring parts of another.

Figure 3-75: Example A3 View

Key Elements and Their Relationships

Meta-Model

The detailed meta-model and element list for A3, Architecture Correspondence, is at paragraph 4.7.3.