What Is System Architecture?

System architecture, a key concept in technology and engineering, is a blueprint defining a system’s design principles including structure, modularity, variability, components, interfaces, and more. It can be applied to domains such as hardware, software, electronics, and electrical systems. System architecture may cover how a system is built, tested, implemented, maintained, upgraded, and evolved — or it may simply fit alongside separate development and maintenance models.

Most system architecture designs break the system down into subsystems, each governing a specific functionality within a domain. The architecture describes how these subsystems work together. Moreover, because things change over time, teams following best practices keep their systems architecture up to date, capturing ongoing decisions and changes so that the blueprint always mirrors the system’s current state.

Why Is System Architecture Important?

System architecture communicates design goals for everyone involved in planning, creation, testing, and implementation of a product. This prevents misinterpretations, thereby minimizing the risk of delays, errors and missed design targets. In addition, it documents that all stakeholder requirements are met and provides a reference for validation of the original design intent. System architecture reflected in digital thread supports collaboration across multidisciplinary teams, further reducing risk.

System architecture benefits

Good system architecture benefits designers and builders of software, as well as hardware and products, because it:

• Captures product complexity: A uniform, enterprise-wide view of the overall model and intent supports the accelerating complexity of product design.
• Simplifies management of design complexity: System architecture together with a system model allow to view design via a series of abstraction layers (logical and functional) making it easier to understand design intent.
• Minimizes risks: A well-defined system architecture helps you avoid problems with integration, operations, and incompatibility at subsystem boundaries.
• Enables interdisciplinary collaboration: The system architecture diagram is the only authoritative source of the system’s design intent that can be used across silos.
• Formalizes decisions: When things change, the system architecture can document the change and ensure it carries forward as you automate, trace, and reuse.

How is uniform system architecture relevant to modern PLM platforms?

Modern PLM system architectures respond to today’s multiple development environment approaches, each with its own specific needs. System architects can choose the appropriate type of system architecture, from the traditional monolithic system architecture to client-server, SOA, microservices, peer-to-peer, event-driven architecture, and many others.

PLM system architecture must support the interdisciplinary nature of today’s product development environments. Spanning multiple roles across human creation and machine work, including automation, analysis, and AI, a well-designed system architecture removes ambiguity and helps stakeholders understand all requirements and their implementation.

What companies risk by not focusing on PLM platform architecture

Understanding PLM architecture can be challenging and time-consuming when selecting a PLM platform. But companies that overlook the implications of this type of architecture do so at their peril. Without understanding the underlying implications, they risk confusion, conflicts, missed deadlines, staff dissatisfaction and attrition, regulatory non-compliance, and fines. It’s also quite possible they will end up with a costly and unsuccessful implementation. Without a PLM platform architecture that is well aligned with the current and future product design complexities, companies risk:

• Wasting time addressing collaboration issues, resolving complexity, and bridging tools and data that do not work well together
• Ramping up development costs by not enabling efficient traceability via a digital thread
• Increasing business risk without a plan or central connective tissue
• Launching unsuccessful products that fail to meet users’ needs
• Incurring non-compliance fines when design unknowingly diverges from standards
• Becoming locked into a rigid PLM architecture that does not evolve and scale as needed

Other Aras Resources

Webpage: Systems Architecture

Watch demos and webinars on Aras System Management solutions.

• Stop Wasting Time: Managing Systems Variability with the Aras Platform
  Find out how Aras’ low-code development industrial platform lets engineers formally manage system models using configuration management when appropriate without limiting creative freedom.
• Connecting the Systems Models to the Digital Thread
  See how to create a tool-agnostic system architecture linked with requirements and verified using simulation to manage complex system.
• Deploying the Source of Truth for Model Based System Development
  Learn more about the platform approach to system development in aerospace and defense and see how it can be used for a rapid development greenhouse environment, agile R&D, design space exploration and supply chain integration.

Blog: Systems Architecture Overview and Installation

In this blog, find out more about the Aras Systems Architecture application. Designed to support product design and systems thinking, the application can connect directly to requirements engineering and simulation management, making it incredibly useful for product planning and design. Learn about the data model components, including systems, system elements and functions, and how to install the Aras Systems Architecture application.

Press Release: Systems Architecture

Discover how Aras Systems Architecture helps globally distributed teams develop complex products through a digital thread to mitigate design and business risks.

White paper: Breaking Down The Silos: How Systems Architecture Enables Interdisciplinary Collaboration

Modern product development requires collaboration beyond the traditional physical structures to embrace multiple disciplines whose data models reside in individual silos. This paper demonstrates how system architecture plays a central role by being the only authoritative source of design intent.