Using the UML for Architectural Description?

The central abstraction, and primary focus, of the standard is Architectural
Description. In P1471, an Architectural Description is a collection of products
to document the architecture of a system. P1471 does not specify the format
or media for an architectural description. What P1471 does specify is certain
minimal required content of an AD re ecting current practices and industry
consensus.

A key tenet of that consensus is the notion of multiple views. In P1471, an
Architectural Description is organized into one or more architectural Views. Most
architectural methods and frameworks advocate the use of one or more views of
the system as a part of the architectural description. However, the exact views
used vary from technique to technique. Rather than require a particular set of
views, P1471 leaves this selection to users of the standard.

One of P1471's contributions is to make explicit the notion of an architectural
Viewpoint to embody the rules governing a view. It is anticipated that this
will allow the denition and reuse of viewpoints, so that varying approaches to
architecture may better be able to exchange results, and that in general the
growth of the discipline will be facilitated by codifying certain useful patterns
of description.