In concert with customer and marketing staffs, systems engineers often formulate and codify an initial overall software system solution to fulfill customer needs. Without a focused, well-supported, and cooperative effort, however, the formulation may reflect a lack of discernment of the customer's existing resources, capabilities, processes, and desiderata, as well as the more promising solution options. Further, any deficiencies of the emerging solution may be masked by inadequacies in its description or delays in its review by all parties.

This paper describes an approach to exploring a customer's enterprise-wide problem space, and in turn the relevant parts of the solution space, in a systematic and revealing manner. Here, the solution space spans developmental constructs, customer assets, and third-party resources. The resultant work product, a solution architecture, enables all stakeholders to comprehend, assess, and refine a proposed software system in terms of its projected enterprise-wide organization and capabilities. The higher degree of stakeholder insight and concurrence so obtained can alleviate risk and facilitate subsequent system development and integration.

Because software matters per se are typically of subordinate concern during solutions architecting, the UML-based methodology presented herein is a style of use of Rational Rose TM and Rational SoDA TM tailored for systems engineering practitioners. The methodology enables a software system development organization and customer staff to agree upon a solution architecture during pre-contractual negotiations. A solution architecture precedes the requirements for a developmental software system, and indicates how that system will perform within a customer's overall enterprise.