Systems Architecture Model (SAM)
Systems Architecture Model (SAM)
The Systems Architecture Model (SAM) is a core artifact in model-based systems engineering (MBSE). It serves as the project’s authoritative “single source of truth,” capturing system structure, behavior, interfaces, constraints, and traceability to requirements across the system life cycle.
Purpose
SAM provides a shared, versioned architecture model so that engineers, analysts, and stakeholders can collaborate on complex, multidisciplinary systems. By centralizing architecture definitions, SAM helps:
- align solutions with stakeholder needs and mission/business goals,
- maintain end-to-end traceability (requirements ↔ architecture ↔ analyses/tests),
- reduce integration risk via early validation and interface control,
- enable consistent change impact analysis and configuration management.
Scope and contents
A SAM typically includes:
- Structural views (system breakdown, components, connectors, interfaces, and allocations).
- Behavioral views (states, modes, activities, scenarios, and performance budgets).
- Constraints and qualities (safety, reliability, security, timing, and cost).
- Traceability links to requirements, verification cases, and analyses/simulations.
Role within MBSE toolchains
In practice, SAM is integrated with simulation and analysis tools so that engineering studies validate or refine what the SAM specifies. Changes propagated through the SAM keep downstream models synchronized (e.g., performance, safety, and verification models)
Methodological lineage
Formal and semi-formal approaches to software and systems architecture modeling (e.g., component/connector models with explicit constraints and behavior) influenced modern SAM practice by emphasizing analyzability and hierarchical composition.
Benefits
- Improved cross-discipline collaboration and communication.
- Earlier defect discovery and risk reduction via executable architectures.
- Faster change assessment with consistent, model-based traceability.
- Better governance of interfaces and configurations at scale.