Conformance and Usage

Before working with the standard, familiarise yourself with the terminology used throughout and how to approach completing a document.

Terminology

The key words “SHALL”, “SHALL NOT”, “SHOULD”, “SHOULD NOT”, “MAY”, and “OPTIONAL” in this standard are to be interpreted as described in RFC 2119 and RFC 8174. These RFCs define the meaning of requirement keywords used in technical standards.

Keyword	Meaning
SHALL	An absolute requirement of the standard
SHALL NOT	An absolute prohibition
SHOULD	Recommended; there may be valid reasons to deviate, but the architect must understand the implications
SHOULD NOT	Not recommended; there may be valid reasons to include but the implications must be understood
MAY / OPTIONAL	Truly optional; include at the author’s discretion

These keywords map to the standard’s documentation depths as follows:

Documentation Depth	Keyword	Governance Gate
Minimum	SHALL	Development / Test review
Recommended	SHOULD	Production approval
Comprehensive	MAY	Enterprise review

Acronyms used throughout the standard

ADS-specific acronyms:

Acronym	Expansion	Where it appears
ADS	Architecture Description Standard	This standard itself
SAD	Solution Architecture Document	The document you produce
HLD	High Level Design	The architectural-views and quality-attributes content within a SAD
ADR	Architecture Decision Record	Section 3.6.2 — captures the context, options, and consequences of a significant design decision
RAID	Risks, Assumptions, Issues, Dependencies	Section 6 — the four governance registers tracked across the SAD’s life
ARB	Architecture Review Board	An organisation’s governance forum that reviews and approves architectures

Common industry acronyms used in examples, templates, and prompts (defined here so new readers can follow without leaving the page):

Acronym	Expansion	Context
IaaS	Infrastructure as a Service	Cloud service model — provider supplies virtualised compute, storage, and networking; consumer manages everything above (OS, runtime, app)
PaaS	Platform as a Service	Cloud service model — provider supplies the runtime/platform; consumer manages only the application and data
SaaS	Software as a Service	Cloud service model — provider supplies the application; consumer manages only their data and configuration
RBAC	Role-Based Access Control	Authorisation model — permissions are granted to roles, and users are assigned to roles
GDPR	General Data Protection Regulation	EU/UK regulation governing personal data; relevant to Section 3.4 Data View and Section 2.3 Compliance

Getting Started

Use the workflow below to complete a Solution Architecture Document. Each step builds on the previous one.

Step 1 — Choose your depth. Pick the documentation depth for your project:

• Minimum — Early-stage designs, proofs of concept, dev/test reviews
• Recommended — Production-bound designs requiring governance approval
• Comprehensive — Critical, regulated, or enterprise-scale systems

Step 2 — Set the context (Sections 0–2). Start with document control, the executive summary, and stakeholders. This frames everything that follows.

Step 3 — Describe the architecture (Section 3). Work through each architectural view. A common starting order is the Logical View (what the solution does), then Physical View (where it runs), then the remaining views.

Step 4 — Assess quality (Section 4). Evaluate the design against each quality attribute. Document any tradeoffs between them.

Step 5 — Plan the lifecycle (Section 5). Document how the solution is built, deployed, operated, and eventually retired.

Step 6 — Capture decisions and risks (Section 6). Document constraints, assumptions, risks, dependencies, and issues. Record key architecture decisions.

Step 7 — Complete appendices and submit (Section 7). Add glossary, references, and approval sign-off. Complete the compliance scoring table and submit for governance review.

Suggested completion order

You do not have to complete sections in strict numerical order. Many architects prefer to start with the Physical View (3.3) or Security View (3.5) first, then work backwards to the Logical View. The key is that all sections at your chosen depth are completed before submission.

What to include and what to skip

• Omit sections that require a higher documentation depth than your target. For example, if your target is Recommended, omit sections marked Comprehensive. Do not include higher-depth sections with empty or “N/A” content.
• Omit sections at or below your target depth that are genuinely not relevant to the solution (e.g., IoT Devices for a cloud-only API).
• Only include sections that add value to the reader.

Document Lifecycle

A Solution Architecture Document produced to this standard is a living artefact:

• It SHALL describe the current state of the solution architecture
• The SAD SHALL be updated when architecturally significant changes are made
• It MAY be updated by multiple teams or change activities, either sequentially or in parallel
• It SHALL NOT be owned by a single project team; ownership rests with the accountable architect for the solution
• Changes to the design SHOULD be approved through the organisation’s architecture governance process

Incremental Updates

If a project seeks only to make incremental changes to a solution documented in an existing SAD, only the sections relevant to the change need to be updated. The remaining sections SHALL remain unchanged and continue to describe the current state.

Output Formats

The standard’s JSON Schema enables generation and validation in multiple formats:

Format	Use Case
Web	Interactive documentation site (this site)
Markdown	Inclusion in git repositories alongside code
YAML	Human-readable structured data, ideal for version control and configuration
JSON	Machine-readable for tooling integration and validation
Word / DOCX	Formal governance submissions and offline review (generated from Markdown)

See Templates for downloadable blank templates in each format.

Architecture Compliance Scoring

Each major section of a Solution Architecture Document MAY be assessed using a 0–5 compliance score. This provides governance boards with a quick, quantitative view of architecture maturity and completeness — both for individual SADs and across a portfolio.

Scoring Scale

Score	Level	Description
0	Not Addressed	No evidence or content provided for this area
1	Acknowledged	The concern is recognised but no design or evidence exists
2	Partial	Some requirements addressed; significant gaps remain
3	Mostly Addressed	Most requirements met; minor gaps or risks requiring mitigation
4	Fully Addressed	All requirements met with supporting evidence
5	Exemplary	Best-practice implementation; could serve as a reference example

Where Scoring Applies

Scoring is applied at the section level, not at individual field level. The following sections are scored:

Section	Scoring Area	What 4/5 Looks Like
1. Executive Summary	Completeness & clarity	Clear business context, strategic alignment demonstrated, scope well-defined
3.1 Logical View	Design quality	Components well-decomposed, patterns justified, vendor lock-in assessed
3.2 Integration & Data Flow	Integration maturity	All interfaces documented, protocols specified, authentication defined
3.3 Physical View	Infrastructure rigour	Deployment architecture complete, environments specified, connectivity documented
3.4 Data View	Data governance	Data stores classified, retention defined, sovereignty addressed, encryption specified
3.5 Security View	Security posture	Threat model complete, all controls documented, monitoring in place
3.6 Scenarios	Design validation	Key use cases documented, ADRs capture significant decisions with rationale
4.1 Operational Excellence	Operational readiness	Centralised logging, monitoring, alerting, and runbooks all in place
4.2 Reliability	Resilience maturity	DR strategy defined, RTO/RPO met, backup tested, fault tolerance designed
4.3 Performance	Performance assurance	Targets defined, growth projected, testing approach documented
4.4 Cost Optimisation	Cost awareness	Cost analysis performed, monitoring enabled, right-sizing evidenced
4.5 Sustainability	Environmental consideration	Carbon-aware hosting, auto-shutdown, right-sizing
5. Lifecycle	Operational maturity	CI/CD documented, migration planned, skills assessed, exit plan in place
6. Decision Making	Governance rigour	RAID log complete, ADRs captured, compliance traceability demonstrated

Compliance Summary Table

Each SAD SHOULD include a compliance summary in the appendices (Section 7) or document control (Section 0):

Section	Score (0–5)	Assessor	Date	Notes
1. Executive Summary
3.1 Logical View
3.2 Integration & Data Flow
3.3 Physical View
3.4 Data View
3.5 Security View
3.6 Scenarios
4.1 Operational Excellence
4.2 Reliability
4.3 Performance
4.4 Cost Optimisation
4.5 Sustainability
5. Lifecycle
6. Decision Making
Overall

Guidance

• The overall score is typically the lowest individual section score (weakest-link principle), not an average. A solution with a 5 in performance but a 1 in security is not a “3” — it has a critical security gap.
• Scoring is collaborative, not adversarial. The solution architect and reviewing authority should score jointly (e.g., ARB or design authority).
• Scores below 3 on any section SHOULD trigger a remediation plan with clear ownership and timelines.
• Organisations MAY define minimum acceptable scores per section for different governance gates (e.g., “all sections must score ≥ 3 for production approval”).

Normative References

See the full normative references table on the Framework Alignment page.