This role defines a system architecture that will satisfy the system requirements and meet the project objectives to minimize cost and risk.  The role analyzes possible solution architectures to determine the preferred high-level design for the system.  Models of the architecture are created to verify that the design will meet the requirements.

The focus is on establishing and refinement of the system's structural aspects and is concerned with the optimization of these structures in terms of major system elements and their interfaces, and making trade-offs in competing factors and constraints (for example, performance, cost, environmental impact), in evaluating potential solutions that produce the required behavior. Its view spans the entire system and all factors, external and internal, that might affect its development. Given the need to maintain this broad view, this role rarely engages in depth in the detailed engineering of a system, preferring to leave that to other practitioners in the various engineering specialties.