adx project: design goals

These are the goals that led us to undertake the ADX project:

To devise a markup language for architectural descriptions (ADs) to enable conformance with ANSI/IEEE Standard 1471.
ADX should support simple direct authoring with a text editor or XML editor.
ADX should support generation from a variety of sources, e.g., from databases or documentation extraction tools as well as from static, hand-edited files.
Exploit ADX schema definition for conformance checking of ADs against IEEE 1471 with schema-based tools. E.g., consistency of stakeholders and concerns, of views to their viewpoints, etc.
In the spirit of IEEE 1471, ADX should allow the definition, application and incorporation of new viewpoints into ADs. E.g., it should permit absorption of existing "viewpoint languages" such as OpenGroup's ADML and Irvine/CMU's xADL.
Similarly, ADX should permit the inclusion of any XML-based model notations (or inline graphics of models), potentially interspersed with styled text, in the document's views.
Utilize XSLT to transform ADs into other formats, initially XHTML and PDF; a contract for extending the format should be published, such that any extension or embedded XML content (e.g. ADL or SVG) should also support XSLT transformation to the same target document formats.
Capable of integration with other production tools: e.g., content management and change management systems.
Facilitate a modular approach to AD definition and tooling that allows "plug-ins" to further support particular architecture methods beyond the scope of the IEEE 1471 requirements.