© (Copyright), International Software Architecture Qualification Board e. V. (iSAQB® e. V.) 2026

The curriculum may only be used subject to the following conditions:

  1. You wish to obtain the CPSA Certified Professional for Software Architecture Foundation Level® certificate or the CPSA Certified Professional for Software Architecture Advanced Level® certificate. For the purpose of obtaining the certificate, it shall be permitted to use these text documents and/or curricula by creating working copies for your own computer. If any other use of documents and/or curricula is intended, for instance for their dissemination to third parties, for advertising etc., please write to info@isaqb.org to enquire whether this is permitted. A separate license agreement would then have to be entered into.

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Important Notice

We stress that, as a matter of principle, this curriculum is protected by copyright. The International Software Architecture Qualification Board e. V. (iSAQB® e. V.) has exclusive entitlement to these copyrights.

The abbreviation "e. V." is part of the iSAQB’s official name and stands for "eingetragener Verein" (registered association), which describes its status as a legal entity according to German law. For the purpose of simplicity, iSAQB e. V. shall hereafter be referred to as iSAQB without the use of said abbreviation.

Learning Goals Overview

Introduction

What Does this Curriculum Contain

This curriculum for the Certified Professional for Software Architecture – Foundation Level (CPSA-F) outlines the essential learning goals that should be mastered to take up the role of software architect.

It is structured along the fundamental activities and responsibilities of software architecture as a role:

  • Clarifying stakeholder requirements and constraints

  • Designing and developing software architectures, thereby taking structural and conceptual decisions

  • Communicating and documenting the architecture for various stakeholders

  • Analyzing and assessing software architectures

What Does a Foundation Level Training Convey?

Licensed Certified Professional for Software Architecture – Foundation Level (CPSA-F) trainings will provide participants with the knowledge and skills required to design, specify and document a software architecture adequate to fulfil the respective requirements for small- and medium-sized systems. Based upon their individual practical experience and existing skills participants will learn to derive architectural decisions from an existing system vision and adequately detailed requirements. CPSA-F trainings teach methods and principles for design, documentation and evaluation of software architectures, independent of specific development processes.

Focus is education and training of the following skills:

  • discuss and reconcile fundamental architectural decisions with stakeholders from requirements, management, development, operations and test

  • understand the essential activities of software architecture, and carry out those for small- to medium sized systems

  • document and communicate software architectures based upon architectural views, architecture patterns and technical concepts.

In addition, such trainings cover:

  • the term software architecture and its meaning

  • the tasks and responsibilities of software architects

  • the roles of software architects within development projects

  • state-of-the-art methods and techniques for developing software architectures.

Out of Scope

This curriculum reflects the contents currently considered by the iSAQB members to be necessary and useful for achieving the learning goals of CPSA-F. It is not a comprehensive description of the entire domain of 'software architecture'.

The following topics or concepts are not part of CPSA-F:

  • specific implementation technologies, frameworks or libraries

  • programming or programming languages

  • specific process models

  • fundamentals of modelling notations (such as UML) or fundamentals of modelling itself

  • system analysis and requirements engineering (please refer to the education and certification program by IREB e. V., https://ireb.org, International Requirements Engineering Board)

  • software testing (please refer to the education and certification program by ISTQB e.V., https://istqb.org, International Software Testing Qualification Board)

  • project or product management

  • introduction to specific software tools.

The aim of the training is to provide the basics for acquiring the advanced knowledge and skills required for the respective application.

Prerequisites

The iSAQB e. V. may check the following prerequisites in certification examinations via corresponding questions.

Participants should have the following knowledge and/or experience. In particular, substantial practical experience from software development in a team is an important prerequisite for understanding the learning material and successful certification.

  • more than 18 months of practical experience with software development, gained through team-based development of several systems outside of formal education

  • knowledge of and practical experience with at least one higher programming language, especially:

    • concepts of

      • modularization (packages, namespaces, etc.)

      • parameter-passing (call-by-value, call-by-reference)

      • scope, i.e. of type and variable declaration and definition

    • basics of type systems (static vs. dynamic typing, generic data types)

    • error and exception handling in software

    • potential problems of global state and global variables

  • Basic knowledge of:

    • modelling and abstraction

    • algorithms and data structures (i.e. Lists, Trees, HashTable, Dictionary, Map)

    • UML (class, package, component and sequence diagrams) and their relation to source code

    • approaches to testing of software (e.g. unit- and acceptance testing)

Furthermore, the following will be useful for understanding several concepts:

  • basics and differences of imperative, declarative, object-oriented and functional programming

  • practical experience in

    • a higher level programming language

    • designing and implementing distributed applications, such as client-server systems or web applications

    • technical documentation, especially documenting source code, system design or technical concepts

Structure, Duration and Teaching Methods

Study times given in the following sections of the curriculum are just recommendations. The duration of a training course should be at least three days, but may as well be longer. Providers may vary in their approach to duration, teaching methods, the type and structure of exercises as well as the detailed course outline. The types (domains and technologies) of examples and exercises can be determined individually by training providers.

Content Recommended Duration (min)

1. Basic Concepts of Software Architecture

120

2. Requirements and Constraints

180

3. Design and Development

360

4. Specification and Communication

240

5. Use and Risks of Artificial Intelligence

60

6. Examples

90

Total

1050

The sum of recommended durations (1050 minutes, or 17.5 hours) almost equals the net teaching time of a three-day course (3 days of 4 × 90-minute sessions = 1080 minutes). Breaks, discussions beyond the scope of the curriculum, and buffer time are not included and must be planned for separately by training providers.

Learning Goals and Relevance for the Examination

The structure of the curriculum’s chapters follows a set of prioritized learning goals. For each learning goal, relevance for the examination of this learning goal or its sub-elements is clearly stated (by the R1, R2, R3 classification, see the table below). Every learning goal describes the contents to be taught including their key terms and concepts.

Regarding relevance for the examination, the following categories are used in this curriculum:

ID Learning-goal category Meaning Relevance for examination

R1

Being able to

These are the contents participants will be expected to be able to put into practice independently upon completion of the course. Within the course, these contents shall be covered through exercises and discussions.

Contents will be part of the examination.

R2

Understanding

These are the contents participants are expected to understand in principle. They will normally not be the primary focus of exercises in training.

Contents may be part of the examination.

R3

Knowing

These contents (terms, concepts, methods, practices or similar) can enhance understanding and motivate the topic. They may be covered in training if required.

Contents will not be part of examination.

If required, the learning goals include references to further reading, standards or other sources. The sections "Terms and Concepts" of each chapter list words that are associated with the contents of the chapter. Some of them are used in the descriptions of learning goals.

Current Version and Public Repository

You find the most current version of this document on the official download page on https://public.isaqb.org/.

The document is maintained in a public repository at https://github.com/isaqb-org/curriculum-foundation, all changes and modifications are public.

Please report any issues in our public issue tracker on https://github.com/isaqb-org/curriculum-foundation/issues.

1. Basic Concepts of Software Architecture

Duration: 120 min.

Exercises: none

Purpose

The purpose of this section is to equip training participants with a foundational understanding of key terms and concepts in software architecture. They become familiar with various definitions and their commonalities, understand the essential goals and benefits of software architecture and can communicate these to other stakeholders. Furthermore, they will be able to name and explain the most important tasks and responsibilities of software architects. Additionally, the section explores the role of software architects in the broader architectural context and their interactions with other stakeholders, preparing participants to effectively contribute to diverse software development projects.

Relevant Terms

Software architecture; architecture domains; structure; building blocks; components; interfaces; relationships; cross-cutting concerns; benefits of software architecture; software architects and their responsibilities; tasks and required skills; stakeholders and their concerns; requirements; constraints; influencing factors

Learning Goals

LG 01-01: Understand Definitions of Software Architecture (R1)

Software architects know and understand the commonalities of many definitions of software architecture:

  • components/building blocks with interfaces and relationships

  • building blocks as a general term, components as a special form thereof

  • structures, cross-cutting concerns, principles

  • architecture decisions and their consequences on the entire systems and its lifecycle

References

[Bass+2021], [Kruchten 2004], [Starke+2023a]

LG 01-02: Understand and Explain the Goals and Benefits of Software Architecture (R1)

Software architects can justify the following essential goals and benefits of software architecture:

  • support the design, implementation, maintenance, and operation of systems

  • achieve functional requirements or ensure that they can be met

  • achieve requirements such as reliability, maintainability, changeability, security, energy efficiency etc.

  • ensure that the system’s structures and concepts are understood by all relevant stakeholders

  • systematically reduce complexity

  • specify architecturally relevant guidelines for implementation and operation

LG 01-03: Know Long-term Impact of Software Architecture (R3)

Software architects know:

  • the relationship between architectural decisions and the future adaptability and maintainability of the system

  • the impact of changes in requirements, technologies or system environment on existing architectural decisions

  • the long-term consequences of architectural decisions on various quality characteristics of the system

  • the interdependencies between IT systems and the supported business and operational processes

They know how to analyze the impact of architectural decisions on the long-term evolution of a system.

References

[Bass+2021], [Lehman 1980], [Wiki-LehmansLaws], [Lilienthal 2024], [Ford+2023], [Rajlich+2000], [Richards+2020]

LG 01-04: Understand the Tasks and Responsibilities of Software Architects (R1)

Software architects are responsible for meeting requirements and creating the architecture design of a solution. Depending on the actual approach or process model used, they must align this responsibility with the overall project responsibility of project management or other roles.

Tasks and responsibilities of software architects:

  • clarify and scrutinize the requirements and constraints. Coordinate and agree on any necessary refinements with the corresponding stakeholders.

  • decide how to decompose the system into building blocks, while determining dependencies and interfaces between the building blocks

  • decide on cross-cutting concerns (for instance persistence, communication, GUI)

  • communicate and document software architecture based on views, patterns, cross-cutting concerns, and technical concerns

  • accompany the realization and implementation of the architecture; integrate feedback from relevant stakeholders into the architecture if necessary; review and ensure the consistency of source code and software architecture

  • analyze and evaluate software architecture, especially with respect to risks that involve meeting the requirements.

  • identify, highlight, and justify the consequences of architectural decisions to other stakeholders

They should independently recognize the necessity of iterations in all tasks and point out possibilities for appropriate and relevant feedback.

LG 01-05 Dieses LZ ist vorübergehend leer.

LG 01-06: Relate the Role of Software Architects to Other Stakeholders (R1)

Software architects are able to explain their role. They should adapt their contribution to system development depending on the specific context and in relation to other stakeholders and organizational units, in particular to:

  • product management and product owners

  • project managers

  • requirement engineers (requirements- or business analysts, requirements managers, system analysts, business owners, subject-matter experts, etc.)

  • developers

  • quality assurance and testers

  • IT operators and administrators (applies primarily to production environment or data centers for information systems),

  • hardware developers and system architects (applies primarily to embedded and hardware-related systems)

  • enterprise architects and architecture board members

LG 01-07: Importance of Data and Data Models (R2)

Software architects understand the importance of data and data models (independently of the physical representation) for the architecture. They

  • can identify data models that have significant impact on the architecture.

  • can design such data models systematically.

  • understand the difference between products and sums in data modelling.

Software architects

  • understand the importance of decoupling data models from their representation in databases, files, and transmission protocols.

  • can explain the impact of data on architecture decisions regarding e.g. storage, security, scalability, reliability, performance etc.

References

[Felleisen+2014], [Sperber+2023], [Sperber+2024], [Kleppmann 2017], [Ford+2021]

2. Requirements and Constraints

Duration: 90 min.

Exercises: 90 min.

Purpose

This section deepens participants' understanding of stakeholder concerns, requirements, and qualities of software architecture. Participants learn to identify the influence of stakeholders on architectural decisions and to assess conflicts and synergies in the context of development projects. By exploring diverse requirements and constraints, they gain insight into effectively addressing stakeholders' needs and project constraints. Additionally, they recognize the significance of software system qualities as drivers for architectural design. They can formulate such requirements using scenarios.

Relevant Terms

Quality; quality characteristics (also called quality attributes); DIN/ISO 25010; Q42; quality scenarios; tradeoffs and interactions between quality characteristics; requirements; constraints; stakeholder concerns

Learning Goals

LG 02-01: Understand Stakeholder Concerns (R1,R3)

Architects can identify stakeholders and their concerns, as well as their impact on the software architecture or the design and development process. (R1)

Examples of stakeholders and concerns (R3):

Stakeholder Stakeholder Concern

product management and product owners

e.g., required time for the implementation of the requirements

developers

e.g., components and interfaces to be implemented, protocols, technical requirements and constraints

requirement engineers, product owners, business analysts

e.g., fulfillment of the requirements

project managers

e.g., required time and budget for the implementation, associated risks of the chosen architectural approach

quality assurance and testers

e.g., isolated testing of components

operations

e.g., infrastructure requirements related to operating the system

Software architects can identify potential conflicts between short-term and long-term goals (e.g., business and project goals vs. architecture and maintainability goals). They understand that they need to involve the relevant stakeholders in order to resolve these conflicts. (R1)

Architects understand that not all stakeholder concerns can or will be translated into requirements, but still need to be considered. (R3)

Architects can use stakeholder concerns to discover missing or conflicting requirements and/or validate requirements and constraints on the architecture, e.g., in stakeholder interviews. (R3)

LG 02-02: Clarify and Consider Requirements and Constraints (R1-R3)

Software architects understand that both requirements and constraints can have an impact on the architecture and the architecture work (R2). They are able to clarify requirements and constraints and take them into account in the architectural design and development process. They understand that their decisions may introduce new requirements or necessitate changes to existing requirements.

They should recognize and account for the impact of:

  • product-related requirements such as (R1)

  • technological constraints such as

    • existing or planned hardware and software infrastructure (R1)

    • technological constraints on data structures and interfaces (R2)

    • reference architectures, libraries, components, and frameworks (R1)

    • programming languages (R2)

  • organizational constraints such as

    • organizational structure of development teams and of the customer (R1), in particular Conway’s law (R2).

    • company and team cultures (R3)

    • partnerships and cooperation agreements (R2)

    • standards, guidelines, and process models (e.g. approval and release processes) (R2)

    • available resources like budget, time, and staff (R1)

    • availability, skill set, and commitment of staff (R1)

  • regulatory constraints such as (R2)

    • local and international legal constraints

    • contract and liability issues

    • data protection and privacy laws

    • compliance issues or obligations to provide burden of proof

  • trends such as (R3)

    • market trends

    • technology trends (e.g. cloud, microservices, container, generative AI or LLMs)

    • methodology trends (e.g. Agile)

Software architects are able to describe how those factors can influence architecture decisions and can elaborate on the consequences of changing influencing factors by providing examples for some of them (R2).

References

[IREB Foundation], [Bass+2021], [Gharbi+2024], [Starke 2024], [Richards+2020], [Pohl 2025]

LG 02-03: Understand and Explain Qualities of a Software System (R1)

Software architects know that the term "quality" is used differently in different contexts:

  • referring to "excellence" in the context of quality management, and

  • referring to a "specific property (of a software system)" in others.

This learning goal refers to the latter.

Software architects can explain that:

  • several taxonomies categorizing qualities of software systems exist

  • some categorizations distinguish between functionality and quality, e.g. IREB [IREB Foundation]

  • software architecture can impact a software system’s qualities,

  • impacting one quality can impact others, necessitating trade-offs, such as:

    • configurability versus reliability

    • memory requirements versus performance efficiency

    • security versus usability

    • runtime flexibility versus maintainability.

They understand that a single requirement might pertain to several qualities.

References

[IREB Foundation], [ISO 25010:2023], [Bass+2021], [Q42]

LG 02-04: Formulate Requirements on Qualities (R1-R3)

Software architects:

  • can formulate scenarios for given qualities with context, stimulus, response, and measurement for a variety of purposes, e.g., to clarify requirements, provide input for architecture assessments, etc. (R1)

  • understand that a requirement for a given quality should specify a method of analysis (see LG 05-02: Verification of AI-generated Artifacts (R1, R2)) (R1)

  • know that the use of a metric as a target can lead to its invalidation (R2), as described, e.g., by Goodhart’s law (R3)

References

[Bass+2021], [Q42], [ISO 25010:2023]

LG 02-05: Prefer Explicit Statements over Implicit Assumptions (R1, R2)

Software architects:

  • can make assumptions explicit and thus avoid implicit assumptions (R1)

  • can explain why implicit assumptions can lead to misunderstandings between stakeholders (R1)

  • can write explicit specifications of requirements, constraints, edge cases, forbidden actions, and escalation paths, and treat this as an architectural responsibility (R2)

  • can explain why good specifications contain unambiguous, general descriptions of the desired behavior - not merely examples (R1)

3. Design and Development of Software Architectures

Duration: 270 min.

Excercises: 90 min.

Purpose

This section aims to enable participants to take architectural decisions in a way that fulfills stakeholder requirements while respecting the given constraints of the system context. They will learn to develop architectural designs, make informed decisions on system decomposition and shape dependencies between building blocks. To this end, they learn to apply basic approaches and heuristics in architecture development. They recognize the importance of design principles and solution patterns and are able to apply them. In addition, this section addresses the management of cross-cutting concerns, the principles of software deployment and the challenges of distributed systems.

Relevant Terms

Design; design approach; architecture decision; views; interfaces; technical concepts and cross-cutting concerns; patterns; pattern languages; design principles; dependencies; coupling; cohesion; top-down and bottom-up approaches; model-based design; iterative design; domain-driven design

Learning Goals

LG 03-01: Fulfilling Requirements through Architecture (R1)

Software architects:

  • understand that architectural activities should be driven by the need to achieve or improve specific qualities

  • can propose an architecture design suitable for fulfilling requirements

  • can assess which qualities they improve through specific architectural activities or decisions

  • can identify and communicate possible trade-offs between designs and their associated risks

LG 03-02: Design Software Architectures (R1)

Software architects are able to:

  • design and appropriately communicate and document software architectures based upon known functional and quality requirements for software systems that are neither safety- nor business-critical

  • make structural decisions regarding system decomposition and building-block structure, thereby defining dependencies between building blocks (see LG 03-06: Manage Dependencies between Building Blocks (R1))

  • recognize and justify interdependencies and trade-offs between architecture decisions;

  • explain the terms black box and white box and apply them purposefully

  • apply stepwise refinement and specification of building blocks

  • design architecture views, especially building-block view, runtime view and deployment view (see LG 04-05: Explain and Use Architectural Views (R1))

  • explain the consequences of decisions on the corresponding source code

  • separate technical and domain-related elements of architectures and justify these decisions

  • identify risks related to architecture decisions.

References

[Kruchten 1995], [Rozanski+2011], [Starke+2023a], [arc42], [Brown-C4], [Starke 2024]

LG 03-03: Select and Use Approaches and Heuristics for Architecture Development (R1,R3)

Software architects are able to name, explain, and use approaches that support architecture development, for example:

LG 03-04: Explain and Use Design Principles (R1-R3)

Software architects are able to explain what design principles are. They can outline their general objectives and their application with regard to software architecture. (R2)

Software architects are able to:

  • explain the design principles listed below and can illustrate them with examples

  • explain how those principles are to be applied

  • explain how requirements determine which principles should be applied

  • explain the impact of design principles on the implementation

  • analyze source code and architecture designs to evaluate whether these design principles have been applied or should be applied

Abstraction (R2)

  • in the sense of a means for deriving useful generalizations

  • as a design technique, where building blocks are dependent on the abstractions rather than depending on implementations

  • interfaces as abstractions

Modularization (R1)

Conceptual integrity (R2-R3)

  • meaning uniformity (homogeneity, consistency) of solutions for similar problems (R2)

  • as a means to achieve the principle of least surprise (aka principle of least astonishment, POLA) (R3)

  • Liskov’s substitution principle as a way to achieve consistency, conceptual integrity and robustness (in the sense of type safety) (R3).

Complexity reduction (R2-R3)

  • as the driving factor behind KISS, YAGNI, and CUPID [Terhorst-North 2022] (R3)

  • DRY (Don’t Repeat Yourself) as one option to avoid repetitions (R2)

Expect errors (R2-R3)

  • as a means to design for robust and resilient systems (R3)

  • as a generalization of the robustness principle (Postel’s law) (R2)

Make illegal states unrepresentable (R2)

  • as a design principle to improve robustness

References

[Liskov+1994], [SOLID]

LG 03-05: Correlation between Feedback Loops and Risks (R1, R2)

Software architects understand the necessity of iterations, especially when decisions are made in the face of uncertainties. They

  • are able to explain the influence of iterative approaches on architectural decisions (with regard to risks and predictability). (R1)

  • can work and make decisions iteratively. (R1)

  • understand the necessity for feedback on architecture decisions. (R1)

  • can systematically obtain feedback from other stakeholders. (R2)

LG 03-06: Manage Dependencies between Building Blocks (R1)

Software architects understand dependencies and coupling between building blocks and can use them in a targeted manner. They:

  • know and understand different types of dependencies of building blocks (e.g. coupling via use/delegation, messaging/events, composition, creation, inheritance, temporal coupling, coupling via data, data types or hardware)

  • understand how dependencies increase coupling

  • can differentiate between at least the following categories of coupling:

    • static and dynamic coupling

    • incoming and outgoing dependencies

  • know that forgoing static dependencies in favor of dynamic dependencies does not necessarily reduce the underlying coupling

  • can identify coupling and assess its consequences

  • can make justified decisions whether a dependency is appropriate or should be removed in view of the requirements and constraints

  • know and can apply possibilities to reduce or eliminate coupling, for example:

References

[Ford+2021]

LG 03-07: Design and Define Interfaces (R1-R3)

Software architects know the critical importance of interfaces for the interaction between architectural building blocks or between the system and external elements. They can design and specify such interfaces.

They know:

  • desired characteristics of interfaces and can achieve them in the design (R1):

    • easy to learn, easy to use, easy to extend

    • hard to misuse

    • functionally complete from the perspective of users or building blocks using them.

  • the necessity to treat internal and external interfaces differently (R2)

  • the distinction between interface and implementation (R1):

    • implementations can be exchanged if required.

  • different characteristics of interfaces, for example (R3):

    • Transport channels (for example: TCP/IP as part of the OSI 7-layer model, shared memory)

    • internal or external

    • local or remote

    • synchronous or asynchronous

    • binary (only machine-readable) or textual (also human-readable)

    • stateless or stateful

    • point-to-point or multipoint (broadcast or multicast)

    • Function call (e.g. remote procedure call) or message exchange

    • Batch, request/response or streaming

  • Implementation approaches for remote service interfaces, such as (R3):

    • procedure-oriented (e.g. GraphQL or WS-*/SOAP-based web services)

    • resource-oriented (REST, REpresentational State Transfer)

See also LG 04-06: Document Interfaces (R1).

References

[Zimmermann+2022], [Geewax 2021]

LG 03-08: Describe, Explain and Apply Important Patterns (R1, R3)

Software architects can explain and provide examples for the following patterns (R1):

Software architects can explain several of the following patterns, explain their relevance for concrete systems, and provide examples. (R3)

Software architects know essential sources for patterns, such as GOF, POSA (e.g. [Buschmann+1996]) and PoEAA ([Fowler 2003]) (for information systems). (R3)

They know:

  • that patterns are a way of achieving certain qualities for given problems and requirements within given contexts.

  • additional sources of patterns that relate to their specific technical or application domain.

References

[Buschmann+1996], [Buschmann+2007], [Eilebrecht+2024], [Fowler 2003], [Gamma+1994], [Hohpe+2004], [Raj+2017]

LG 03-09: Analyse architecture (R1)

Software architects understand that an architecture analysis can help to:

  • identify risks and possible improvements in the architecture design

  • determine if the architecture design fulfills, or will fulfill, the requirements

  • assess conformance of the implementation to the architecture decisions and design

  • verify that architecturally relevant stakeholder concerns are addressed

References

LG 03-10: Identify, Design and Implement Cross-Cutting Concerns (R1)

Software architects are able to:

  • explain the significance of cross-cutting concerns

  • identify cross-cutting concerns

  • design cross-cutting concepts, for example persistence, communication, GUI, error handling, concurrency, energy efficiency

  • identify and assess potential interdependencies.

Software architects know that such cross-cutting concepts may be re-used across systems.

See also LG 04-07: Document and Communicate Cross-Cutting Concerns (R2).

References

[Starke 2024], [Starke+2023a]

LG 03-11: Know Fundamental Principles of Software Deployment (R3)

Software architects:

  • know that software deployment is the process of making new or updated software available to its users

  • are able to name and explain fundamental concepts of software deployment:

    • automated deployments

    • repeatable builds

    • consistent environments (e.g. use immutable and disposable infrastructure)

    • put everything under version-control

    • releases are easy-to-undo

References

[Humble+2010]

LG 03-12: Business and technical views (R3)

Software architects know that the distinction between business (aka domain) and technical aspects or perspectives is a useful prerequisites for designing systems.

  • Business perspectives are often created or clarified first, as they help to identify missing requirements and clarify scope.

    • External actors: users, partner organizations, regulatory bodies, adjacent business systems

    • Relationships expressed in domain/business terms: data flows, service dependencies, business events

    • The target audience are product owners, business stakeholders, domain experts.

  • Technical perspectives contain structural or crosscutting decisions on, for example:

    • Technology stacks, specific frameworks, libraries or other products used in development or operation of systems

    • Technical channels/protocols used for communication

    • Protocols (REST, AMQP, JDBC), message formats, authentication mechanisms

    • Techncial infrastructure

    • Target audience: developers, architects, infrastructure teams

4. Specification and Communication of Software Architectures

Duration: 180 min.

Exercises: 60 min.

Purpose

The purpose of this section is to enable participants to document and communicate software architectures in a way that meets the needs of important stakeholders and supports the development process. The focus is on understanding the essential requirements for technical documentation, using appropriate models and notations to describe architectures, and applying key architectural views. Additionally, participants will learn to document key architectural decisions, interfaces, and cross-cutting concerns, ensuring clear, correct, and stakeholder-relevant documentation.

Relevant Terms

(Architectural) Views; structures; (technical) concepts; documentation; communication; description; alignment with target-groups and stakeholder concerns; structures and templates for description and communication; system context; building blocks; building-block view; runtime view; deployment view; node; channel; deployment artifacts; mapping building blocks onto deployment artifacts; mapping deployment artifacts onto nodes; description of interfaces and design decisions; UML; tools for documentation

Learning Goals

LG 04-01: Explain and Consider the Requirements of Technical Documentation (R1)

Software architects know the essential requirements for technical documentation and can consider and fulfil them when documenting systems:

  • understandability, correctness, efficiency, appropriateness, maintainability

  • form, content, and level of detail tailored to the target group of the documentation

They know that only the target audiences can assess the understandability of technical documentation.

References

[Starke+2023a], [Zörner 2021], [Clements+2010]

LG 04-02: Describe and Communicate Software Architectures (R1-R3)

Software architects use documentation to support the design, implementation and further development (also called maintenance or evolution) of systems (R2)

Software architects are able to (R1):

  • document and communicate architectures for corresponding stakeholder concerns, thereby addressing different target groups, e.g. management, development teams, QA, other software architects, and possibly additional stakeholders

  • develop and implement measures that keep verbal and written communication aligned with one another and appropriately balanced

  • explain the benefits of template-based documentation

  • describe how various properties of documentation depend on specific properties of the system, its requirements, risks, development process, organization or other factors.

For example, software architects can adapt the scope, detail, format, and accessibility of documentation to the situation.

LG 04-03: Explain and Apply Notations/Models to Describe Software Architecture (R2-R3)

Software architects are able to select an appropriate notation for given stakeholder concerns and can justify their choice. In doing so, they take the target group, the required level of detail, and the required degree of formality into account - see LG 04-01: Explain and Consider the Requirements of Technical Documentation (R1) and LG 04-02: Describe and Communicate Software Architectures (R1-R3) (R2).

In particular, they are able to justify when a textual or tabular representation (e.g. numbered process steps, interface table) is preferable to a diagram (R2).

Software architects are able to read the following UML diagram types, i.e. to explain the elements and relationships shown and their semantics, and to create them for simple systems (R2):

  • building block and context view: package, component, and class diagrams

  • runtime view: sequence and activity diagrams

  • deployment view: deployment diagrams

When creating diagrams, they pay attention to at least the following: an explicit statement of purpose, a legend or an explanation of non-standard elements, an appropriate level of abstraction, and consistency with the accompanying text. When reading diagrams, they identify violations of these criteria. (R2)

Software architects know further notations at an overview level and are able to relate them to their primary intended use: state machine and composite structure diagrams (UML), C4 [Brown-C4], ArchiMate, SysML, entity-relationship diagrams [Chen 1976], flow charts, BPMN (R3).

References

[UML], [ArchiMate], [SysML], [Brown-C4], [Chen 1976]

LG 04-04: Learning Goal not Found (R3)

Software architects are able to gracefully deal with unexpected situations.

Note: The title of this learning goal has been chosen intentionally and is not a technical error.

References

[IETF HTTP]

LG 04-05: Explain and Use Architectural Views (R1)

Software architects are able to use the following architectural views:

  • context view

    • contains the external interfaces of systems

    • when appropriate differentiated according to business and technical context

  • building block or component view (composition of software building blocks)

  • runtime view (dynamic view, interaction between software building blocks at runtime, state machines)

  • deployment view (hardware and technical infrastructure as well as the mapping of software building blocks onto the infrastructure)

Additional views might be used as needed to address further stakeholder concerns and requirements. (R3)

References

[Kruchten 1995], [Rozanski+2011], [Starke+2023a], [arc42], [Brown-C4]

LG 04-06: Document Interfaces (R1)

Software architects are able to document and specify both internal and external interfaces.

See also LG 03-07: Design and Define Interfaces (R1-R3).

LG 04-07: Document and Communicate Cross-Cutting Concerns (R2)

Software architects are able to adequately document and communicate typical cross-cutting concerns and the corresponding solution concepts (cross-cutting concepts), e.g., persistence, workflow management, UI, deployment/integration, logging.

See also LG 03-10: Identify, Design and Implement Cross-Cutting Concerns (R1)

LG 04-08: Explain and Document Architectural Decisions (R1-R2)

Software architects are able to:

  • systematically make, justify, communicate, and document architectural decisions

  • identify, communicate, and document interdependencies between architecture decisions

Software architects know about Architecture-Decision-Records (ADR, see [Nygard 2011]) and can apply these to document decisions (R2).

References

[Nygard 2011]

LG 04-09: Know Additional Resources and Tools for Documentation (R2)

Software architects know:

  • basics of several published frameworks for the description of software architectures, for example:

  • ideas and examples of checklists for the creation, documentation, and review of software architectures

  • possible tools for creating and maintaining architectural documentation

References

[ISO 42010:2022], [arc42], [Brown-C4]

5. Use and Risks of Artificial Intelligence

Duration: 60 min.

Exercises: 0 min.

Purpose

The purpose of this section is to give training participants a foundational understanding of using artificial intelligence to support architecture development. The section covers the impact of AI-generated artifacts on quality and the importance of verifying AI-generated output, the systemic risks of AI, and its ethical and societal externalities. More extensive coverage of AI-assisted architecture is in Advanced Level module AGENTA [iSAQB AGENTA]. The architecture of AI-based systems is covered by Advanced Level module SWARC4AI [iSAQB SWARC4AI].

Relevant Terms

LLM, AI agent (e.g. coding agent), AI-generated output

Learning Goals

LG 05-01: Deciding on the Use of AI in Architecture Work (R1, R2)

Software architects:

  • can decide, based on stated criteria, whether and how to use AI for a given task, and justify this as an architectural decision (R2)

  • can explain why delegating tasks to AI agents amplifies the consequences of implicit assumptions: agents may act on ambiguous, incomplete, or contradictory instructions in ways a human would not (R1)

LG 05-02: Verification of AI-generated Artifacts (R1, R2)

Software architects:

  • can explain that responsibility for decisions and artifacts remains with humans, even when these are partly AI-generated (R1)

  • can explain why verification of AI-generated output must be an integral part of the development process, since such output may be incorrect in non-obvious ways (R1)

  • can name verification approaches, e.g. code review, automated tests and continuous integration, static analysis and type systems, scenario-based and formal methods (R2)

  • can explain the risks of delegating review and verification to an LLM (R2)

References

[iSAQB FM]

LG 05-03: Recognize the risks, ethical and societal externalities of AI (R2, R3)

Software architects:

  • can name risks of AI use: IP/legal risks, disclosure of source code, documentation, or data to third-party model providers, security risks such as prompt injection, degradation of critical skills and disruption of learning processes, and dependencies on a small number of providers and on specific models that may be changed or withdrawn (R2)

  • can describe the societal externalities of AI infrastructure: energy/CO2, labor-market pressure, disruption of open-source and internet ecosystems, model bias in public infrastructure, political destabilization (R3)

References

[Link 2025]

6. Examples of Software Architectures

Duration: 90 min.

Exercises: none

This section MUST be covered in training (e.g., using a concrete, practical example), although it is not relevant for the exam.

Learning Goals

LG 06-01: Know the Relation between Requirements, Constraints, and Solutions (R3)

Software architects are expected to recognize and comprehend the correlation between requirements and constraints, and the chosen solutions using at least one example.

References

[arc42], [Starke+2023b], [Hruschka+2021], [Zörner 2021], [AOSA]

LG 06-02: Understand the technical implementation of a solution (R3)

Software architects understand the technical realization (implementation, technical concepts, products used, architectural decisions, solution strategies) of at least one solution.

References

[arc42], [Starke+2023b], [Hruschka+2021], [Zörner 2021], [AOSA]

References

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