Systems have architectures. In the Standard, the architecture of a system is defined as: “fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution”. The definition was chosen (1) to accommodate the broad range of things listed above under System: the architecture of X is what is fundamental to X (whether X is an enterprise, system, system of systems, or some other entity); and (2) to emphasize (via the phrase “concepts or properties”) that a system can have an architecture even if that architecture is not written down. For more about the definition, see [Defining “architecture”].
