Abstract
arch42 has a section to document the stakeholders of the platform. Stakeholders have different roles and expectations when interacting with the platform’s architecture documentation. The purpose of this post to describe a few common roles and how they relate to each other.
Disclaimer
This post is solely informative. Critically think before using any information presented. Learn from it but ultimately make your own decisions at your own risk.
Requirements
A solution architect documenting the roles and expectations of stakeholders for the platform.
Roles
There are many people involved with the platform. Each person has a particular role and expectation with respect to the platform architecture and its documentation. People may have many roles. ChatGPT was initially prompted with “in software development if the analyst owns the what and the architect owns the how, what does the developer own?”. It was then prompted with the follow-ups “what does the tester own?” and “what does the user own?”. Responses were used to describe roles and expectations.
Owner. The owner is expected to provide the platform team decisions about (a) underlying business goals, (b) platform features and functional (business) requirements, and (c) platform architecture and non-functional (quality) requirements.
Analyst. The analyst is expected to provide the platform team with fully documented functional (business) requirements of the platform features in fulfillment of the underlying business goals. The analyst owns the “what” of the platform’s operation and maintains it in the architecture documentation.
Architect. The architect is expected to provide the platform team with fully documented non-functional (quality) requirements of the platform features in fulfillment of the underlying quality goals. The architect owns the “how” of the platform’s operation and maintains it in the architecture documentation.
Developer. The developer is expected to provide the platform team with an implementation of the platform in fulfillment of both the functional (business) and non-functional (quality) requirements specified by the analyst and architect respectively. The developer owns the “do” of the platform’s operation and references the architecture documentation.
Tester. The tester is expected to provide the platform team with quality assurance of the platform in fulfillment of both the functional (business) and non-functional (quality) requirements specified by the analyst and architect respectively. The tester owns the “validate” of the platform’s operation and references the architecture documentation.
User. The user is expected to provide the platform team with feedback on the platform. The user owns the “experience” of the platform’s operation with no direct use of the architecture documentation.
No list like this can be exhaustive, but, for most platforms this is a good list of roles to start with. Update the expectations or add new roles as appropriate for your platform.
Summary
That’s it, enjoy!
References
arc42 Documentation. (n.d.). https://docs.arc42.org/home/
ISO 25010. (n.d.). https://iso25000.com/index.php/en/iso-25000-standards/iso-25010
OpenAI. (2025). ChatGPT (Feb 04 version) [Large language model]. https://chatgpt.com/
