The paper proposes the development of a graphical architecture description language (ADL) that allows a better understanding of software architectures for nontechnical actors and purposes and, beyond, can serve as a communication tool between domain experts and IT experts, for instance, in a software development process.,The paper follows the methods and guidelines of design science research. By deriving characteristics and general requirements for ADLs from a research literature review and from industry standards, the paper provides a conceptual modeling approach for an ADL. The model design is based on typical requirements and suggestions derived from literature and related work. The application possibilities and advantages are then demonstrated with a usage scenario.,The paper elaborates a user-oriented ADL that makes software architecture comprehensible for stakeholders and end users. It provides a high level of abstraction and, thus, is not restricted to a particular domain. The paper also provides a corresponding modeling editor as well as an underlying catalogue with symbols and rules for the ADL.,As this is a conceptual study, the ADL has not been practically evaluated yet. Thus, the usefulness of this academic approach for the industry remains to be validated.,The elaborated ADL can serve as a language to visualize software architectures, particularly in the business domain, in a comprehensible manner. Still, it retains the structured character of ADLs to facilitate communication on an IT-near level. In including nontechnical actors, the approach broadens the overall application capabilities of ADLs.

中文翻译：

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为非技术参与者和目的设计体系结构描述语言（NOTE-ADL）

本文提出了一种图形体系结构描述语言（ADL）的开发，该语言可以更好地理解非技术参与者和目的的软件体系结构，并且可以用作领域专家和IT专家之间的交流工具，例如，在软件中开发过程。，本文遵循设计科学研究的方法和准则。通过从研​​究文献综述和行业标准中得出ADL的特性和一般要求，本文提供了ADL的概念建模方法。该模型设计基于从文献和相关工作中得出的典型要求和建议。然后通过使用场景演示了应用程序的可能性和优势。本文阐述了一种面向用户的ADL，它使利益相关者和最终用户可以理解软件体系结构。它提供了很高的抽象度，因此并不局限于特定的领域。本文还提供了相应的建模编辑器以及具有ADL符号和规则的基础目录。由于这是一项概念研究，因此ADL尚未得到实际评估。因此，这种学术方法对行业的有用性尚待验证。精心设计的ADL可以作为一种语言，以一种易于理解的方式可视化软件体系结构，尤其是在业务领域。尽管如此，它仍保留了ADL的结构特征，以促进接近IT级别的通信。在包括非技术参与者的情况下，该方法扩展了ADL的整体应用程序功能。