Glossary · Systems engineering and MBSE
Viewpoint (systems engineering)
Also known as: Architecture viewpoint
In systems engineering, a viewpoint is the set of conventions and concerns that define how a view is constructed and interpreted. It specifies the stakeholders and concerns addressed, the model kinds used and the rules for reading them.
- Systems engineering
- Technical documentation
In one sentence
A viewpoint defines the concerns, notations and rules for building and reading a kind of view, such as a functional safety viewpoint.
Example
A machine builder defines a functional safety viewpoint: it addresses the concerns of safety engineers and assessors, uses block diagrams of safety functions and requires every function to show its PLr and verification status.
How it applies
- Architecture description: ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010 uses viewpoints to frame stakeholder concerns. Each view is governed by a viewpoint.
- Reuse: Define viewpoints once per organization or project and reuse them. This makes views from different teams comparable.
- Technical documentation: A viewpoint is to a view what a schema is to data: it defines what may appear and how it is to be read. Documentation standards and templates can be written as viewpoints.
- Evidence: A viewpoint for assessors makes explicit which information a safety review expects, which helps to check completeness.
Viewpoint vs. view
The viewpoint is the specification (concerns, conventions, notations). The view is the result for a particular system. Changing a viewpoint affects all views built on it.