Architecture Characteristic Eval Programs
About this pattern
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How to use this pattern
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Type: Architecture eval-support subpattern under C.32 Status: Stable Normativity: Normative unless explicitly marked informative
Use this pattern when an architecture team already has project architecture-characteristic rows and must evaluate the current architecture, compare candidate architectures, monitor evolution, or prepare a selection input.
Keywords
- architecture-characteristic eval program
- eval result
- measurement boundary
- parity frame
- missing-data policy
- proxy risk
- comparison input.
Relations
Content
Problem frame
Use this pattern when an architecture team already has project architecture-characteristic rows and must evaluate the current architecture, compare candidate architectures, monitor evolution, or prepare a selection input.
Primary working reader: an architect or evaluator preparing readings over declared architecture-characteristic criteria without turning those readings into the criteria or the decision.
Typical entry phrases:
First-minute use slice. A product-family team has ACS rows for substitutability, evidence reuse, and latency, plus safety as a monitored guardrail. Two candidate architectures look plausible. The practitioner writes one ACE program record with the same claim scope, selected context slices, reference scheme and plane, evaluation window, parity frame, and input projections for both candidates. EvalService-7 first has the A.13 core for candidate evaluation, and A.15.1 independently admits CandidateEvalWork-42, which enacts ArchitectureCandidateEvaluationMethod-7 and occurs within ProductFamilyEvaluationService-7. This first-minute record expressly represents evaluator accountability under EvaluatorAssignment-3, an obtaining occurrence of directly declared species EvaluatorAssignment, so it also includes the separate F.6 relation through the same A.13 assignment. A Work-only ACE record would omit those assignment and attribution refs, and failed F.6 would leave CandidateEvalWork-42 intact. CandidateLatencyReading-42 and CandidateEvidenceScopeFinding-42 are typed results established through their result patterns. Those results can become inputs for [A.19.CPM](/generated/patterns/A.19.CPM) comparison or the next C.32 synthesis pass; neither the program record, Work, nor a result defines the criterion or decides the architecture.
This pattern concerns one architecture-characteristic eval-program record over declared criteria rows, Q-Bundle slots, candidates, bearers, or selected structures under a parity frame. It is a record in a C.32.ACE-local form, not a new U.* kind and not, by its program label, a U.Method, U.MethodDescription, U.WorkPlan, dated U.Work, or evaluation result. When measurement validity, comparison policy, a selection result, G.5 result declaration, publication, or architecture decision is current, use the definition and test for that claim.
Ordinary working move: choose the declared criteria rows, bind the claim scope, relevant context slices, reference scheme and plane, evaluation window, and input projections, and hold one parity frame for all variants. When evaluation actually occurs, recover each exact evaluator through A.13 and let A.15.1 independently admit the U.Work occurrence. Add evaluationWorkAttributionRefs only when the program or receiving use expressly represents precise assignment-bound attribution; missing or failed F.6 leaves the Work intact. Any A.6.1 operation application is an additional relation, not a substitute for the Method enacted by the Work. Return the typed results established through their result patterns as feedback for comparison or the next synthesis pass.
The first useful output is an ArchitectureCharacteristicEvalProgram@Project. This C.32.ACE-local working record states how one bounded architecture evaluation is to be framed over declared criteria. When a reusable way of evaluating is current, identify that separate U.Method under A.3.1; when a claim-bearing episteme describes that exact Method, test the same episteme for U.MethodDescription under A.3.2. A planned evaluation belongs to A.15.2, an actual dated evaluation to A.15.1, and each result to its direct measurement, comparison, evaluation, or assertion pattern. Use the record to frame readings of characteristics through rows, slots, candidates, or structures; it is not any of those neighboring objects.
For a first pass, fill the exact claim scope and selected context slices, reference scheme and plane, evaluation window and input projections, evaluated rows or Q-Bundle slots, evaluated candidates or structures, parity frame, eval purpose, intended eval operation, result form, receiving use, and refresh or retire condition. Add project-use refs only for a claimed project-local program; add Method, MethodDescription, actual evaluation Work, operation-application, and typed-result refs only when those separate objects are current.
Here @Project is a compatibility and retrieval cue only. It supplies no project entity, composite-work identity, context, authority, viewpoint, or parthood. A program local to one actual project names both the composite U.Work in projectWorkOccurrenceRef and the obtaining program-use relation in architectureEvalProgramProjectUseRelationRef; either field alone is insufficient. evalOperation states the intended operation family in the program record, not an actual run or application. Each evaluationWorkRef names one independently identified U.Work occurrence whose exact actual performers have A.13 cores and which A.15.1 admits independently. evaluationWorkAttributionRefs are optional and appear only when the record or receiving use expressly represents precise assignment-bound attribution; any present ref resolves through F.6 to the same obtaining A.13 assignment, and its absence or failure does not invalidate the Work ref. Any A.6.1 application binding and each typed result remain under the applicable patterns. A program, Method, MethodDescription, Work occurrence, operation application, assignment, attribution, and result never substitute for one another.
What goes wrong if C.32.ACE is missed: a project has architecture-characteristic rows but treats a test, monitor, dashboard, or source-side "fitness function" as the criterion or as the decision. The team may then reject useful losing variants as errors, optimize one indicator, or choose a candidate without fair comparison.
What C.32.ACE buys in practice: eval work is framed as typed evaluation over declared architecture criteria. A losing candidate can still add knowledge about the solution space, while an actual error remains a failure against an expectation that causes unplanned rework.
Adoption test: after using C.32.ACE, the record shows the candidates, bearers, or selected structures to be evaluated under the same parity frame, the declared result form, and which pattern for the next question may use the reading as feedback. When an actual result is claimed, the record cites that separately established result and its result form.
Not this pattern when the characteristic rows do not exist yet. Also not this pattern when the current work is measurement validity, composite-quality modeling, explicit comparison, set-returning selection, local choice, selected-set result declaration, actual publication, evidence, assurance, or project architecture decision.
Common exits by claim kind:
[C.32.HCS](/generated/patterns/C.32.HCS)and[C.32.ACS](/generated/patterns/C.32.ACS)before characteristic rows exist.[C.16](/generated/patterns/C.16)for measurement validity, readings, units, uncertainty, or comparability claims.[C.25](/generated/patterns/C.25)for Q-Bundles and composite quality families.[E.13](/generated/patterns/E.13)when an eval result or dashboard starts replacing the declared architecture concern.[C.32](/generated/patterns/C.32)for candidate synthesis,[C.32.MLAO](/generated/patterns/C.32.MLAO)for residual input, and[E.23](/generated/patterns/E.23)for repeated improvement feedback.[A.19.CPM](/generated/patterns/A.19.CPM)for explicit comparison,[A.19.SelectorMechanism](/generated/patterns/A.19.SelectorMechanism)for set-returning selection,[C.11](/generated/patterns/C.11)for local choice, and[G.5](/generated/patterns/G.5)for selected-set result declaration. For publication, use[E.17](/generated/patterns/E.17)for a source-backed face and source return and[E.24.PUB](/generated/patterns/E.24.PUB)for the publication occurrence and audience availability.[A.10](/generated/patterns/A.10)and[B.3](/generated/patterns/B.3)when evidence or assurance claims are being made.[C.32.PAD](/generated/patterns/C.32.PAD)for project decision.
Problem
Architecture synthesis is an optimization and learning activity under competing characteristics. It needs evals: deliberate measurement, simulation, benchmark, scenario, review, or monitoring runs that say how a current architecture or candidate architecture reads against declared criteria.
Testing for errors is a neighboring use. A test asks whether an expectation is violated. An eval asks how variants compare, how a candidate changes the trade-off front, which constraint is hit, or whether the next synthesis pass should open. A candidate that loses the eval is not automatically an error; it may be a deliberate probe that improves the architecture team's knowledge of the solution space.
Evolutionary-architecture sources often say "fitness function". In FPF that is source-side wording. The recoverable FPF object is an eval program over declared architecture-characteristic rows, Q-Bundle slots, candidate structures, and a parity frame. Some eval programs can specify automated tests or monitors, but automation does not change the kind of the program record.
Forces
Solution
Create an architecture-characteristic eval program only after the evaluated criteria rows exist in C.32.ACS or a declared C.25 Q-Bundle slot.
Work in this order:
- Reference the evaluated ACS criteria set, evaluated rows, and any Q-Bundle slots.
- State the eval purpose: current characterization, candidate comparison, portfolio-frontier work, post-change impact measurement, monitoring, or trigger for the next synthesis pass.
- Name the candidates, bearers, and selected structures being evaluated.
- Establish one exact
U.ClaimScope, the relevant A.2.6U.ContextSlicemembership, effectiveU.ReferenceSchemeand reference plane, evaluation window, input projections, resource budget, units (when required by the scale), admissible observation or evidence inputs, and missing-or-unknown policy. Record their parity requirement inparityFrameRef; the parity-frame record does not replace those bindings. - Choose eval scope: one criterion, coupled criteria, one Q-Bundle slice, a candidate portfolio, or a holistic use slice.
- Choose eval operations. Use measurement, simulation, benchmark, scenario walkthrough, monitor, review, or evidence audit according to the claim. Use
testonly when the intended operation checks an expectation or hard constraint. When evaluation actually occurs, recover each exact evaluator through A.13 and let A.15.1 independently admit theU.Workoccurrence and enacted Method. AddevaluationWorkAttributionRefsonly when the record or receiving use expressly represents precise assignment-bound attribution. Independently identify the relation or A.6.1 application binding that obtains and the typed result; the program record itself does not run. - Declare the result form. Examples include a reading, band, rank, dominance relation, trade-off front, qualitative state, or evidence finding; use the definition and test for the actual result kind.
- Name proxy risk and protected counter-characteristics before the eval result can drive work. Optimize only the cycle's chosen indicators; keep the remaining protected characteristics visible as guardrails or risk signals.
- State the receiving use:
C.32synthesis input,C.32.MLAOresidual input,E.23improvement feedback,A.19.CPMcomparison input,A.19.SelectorMechanismselection input,C.11choice input, input for a selected-set result declared underG.5, or architecture-decision input forC.32.PAD. For publication input, distinguishE.17source-backed face and source return from theE.24.PUBpublication occurrence and audience availability. - Refresh or retire the eval program when the evaluated row, C.32 candidate palette, bearer, selected structure, environment, parity frame, or source-currentness relation changes.
Stop condition. Stop C.32.ACE when the eval program names evaluated rows or Q-Bundle slots, evaluated candidates or structures, parity frame, eval purpose, eval operation, result form, receiving use, proxy risk, protected counter-characteristics, and refresh or retire condition.
Lowering condition. Use the eval result for the current architecture work only while the evaluated rows, evaluated candidates or structures, parity frame, eval operation, result form, and receiving use still match the work being done. Limit use of the result to report-only when missing data, proxy risk, or parity-frame mismatch prevents the intended synthesis, comparison, selection, selected-set result declaration, actual publication, choice, evidence, assurance, or decision use. Retire the eval program when its evaluated row, bearer, selected structure, environment, source-currentness relation, or receiving use no longer belongs to the current architecture work. Use C.32.ACS when the criteria row is missing or wrong, C.16 when measurement validity is current, C.25 when the evaluated item is composite, and the named pattern for the next question when a stronger downstream claim is current.
Worked slices
Latency candidate. A service candidate promises latency under 100 ms and an eval reads 240 ms. If the 100 ms band is a hard constraint, the candidate is inadmissible for this cycle. If the project is still exploring a trade-off front, the candidate misses the latency target while supplying useful evidence about resource placement, interface burden, or control separation. Treat it as an error only when the project used that expectation to plan work and unplanned rework follows.
BIM digital twin. A built-asset team compares architecture candidates that combine placement, schedule, use-phase, maintenance, and cost structures. ACE does not treat the number of dimensions as the evaluation. The practitioner defines a parity frame and evals the ACS rows declared for the project, such as access, source-return cost, observability, and maintenance reach, then records results with the parity-frame and result-form fields needed by A.19.CPM.
Method-family architecture. A review-Method family has ACS rows for evidence reuse and change reach. If source wording also says “role substitutability,” use E.10.ROLE and C.32.ACS to bind the exact recovered subject and predicate—such as substitutability among local system-role kinds under A.2.7, not among holders or assignments—before ACE evaluates it. A separate C.25 bundle covers teachability. ACE defines a batch evaluation over three Method variants. One variant loses on teachability but reveals a reusable evidence relation; C.32 may use it as a stepping stone.
AI-agent workflow. A model-supported workflow has candidates with different function graphs and tool boundaries. ACE evaluates latency, evidence refresh, policy controllability, and rollback under the same task set and evidence window. A benchmark score is not the architecture decision; it supplies one eval reading inside the parity frame.
Hospital escalation. A hospital escalation team has ACS rows for decision latency, accountability clarity, and evidence custody. Any source “role continuity” or “role-boundary” criterion first goes through E.10.ROLE and C.32.ACS, which binds the exact subject and predicate—such as continuity of assignment occurrences and their holder Systems, or a boundary among exact participant relations. ACE evaluates two recovered architecture variants under the same incident scenarios and handoff evidence window. The result can feed comparison or the next synthesis pass; staffing choice remains with the receiving decision pattern.
Kind and Receiving-Claim Boundary
Use C.32.ACE to construct the local architecture-characteristic eval-program record and to keep criterion, reusable evaluation Method, MethodDescription episteme, intended operation family, planned evaluation, actual dated evaluation Work, actual operation application, typed result, comparison input, selection input, and decision input distinct. The local record admits no new U-kind. Use A.3.1, A.3.2, A.15.2, A.15.1, and A.6.1 for their respective objects and relations; use the pattern that defines and tests each actual result. C.32.ACE does not define starter characteristic selection, ACS scale-row construction, measurement validity, Q-Bundle normal form, candidate synthesis, comparison policy, final selection, local choice, G.5 selected-set result declaration, publication, or an architecture decision. When those claims are current, use C.32.HCS, C.32.ACS, C.16, C.25, C.32, A.19.CPM, A.19.SelectorMechanism, C.11, G.5, or C.32.PAD as applicable. For publication, use E.17 for a source-backed publication face and return to source and E.24.PUB for the publication occurrence, form, carrier, audience, bounded use, and availability.
Conformance requirements
Common failures and repairs
Consequences
Rationale
An architecture-characteristic eval program is the missing middle object between criteria rows and architecture selection. It frames the question "how did these candidates or structures read under this parity frame?"; the answer comes from independently established typed results. It does not answer "what is the criterion?", "is the measurement valid outside this use?", or "which architecture must be chosen?"
The pattern is architecture-specific because it evaluates selected structures and architecture characteristics. The same eval form can be used in system, organization-as-system, built-asset, episteme, work-occurrence, discipline, AI-agent-setup, and C.36-recovered cultural-evolution cases once the admitted holon being described has been identified in each case. It can also evaluate Method-side, Work-side, evidence-side, local-kind, classification, or assignment structures after the described holon, the defining or constraining ClaimGraph located through the subject pattern, the bearer and predicate, and the scale rows are rebound. Unresolved “role” wording goes through E.10.ROLE; the pattern does not admit Methods, roles, practices, or cultures as holon kinds by label.
SoTA-Echoing
These rows document how source practice contributes to eval-program fields, result-use boundaries, and refresh conditions in C.32.ACE.
Source-currentness boundary. Use each source row only for the ACE eval-program field, result-use boundary, or refresh condition named in that row. Recheck the row when a named book edition, source presentation, FPF pattern for the next question, metric practice, or evolutionary-architecture practice changes the transferred move. If the project wants criteria-row admission, measurement validity, Q-Bundle structure, explicit comparison, selection, selected-set result declaration, actual publication, local choice, evidence, assurance, or decision use, leave ACE and open the pattern for the next question.
Relations
- Builds on:
C.32.HCS,C.32.ACS,C.16,C.16.P,C.25,A.2.6,A.19,E.13,E.22,E.23, andA.19.CPM; coordinates with A.3.1, A.3.2, A.15.2, A.15.1, and A.6.1 only for separately current Method, MethodDescription, planned Work, dated Work, or operation-application claims. - Receiving uses:
C.32.P2Sactual-structure feedback and next-synthesis repair,C.32candidate synthesis,C.32.MLAOresidual optimization,C.32.CONWAYcorrespondence frames,C.32.FAILrepair,A.19.CPMcomparison,A.19.SelectorMechanismselection,C.11local choice, selected-set result declaration underG.5, source-backed publication-face and source-return work underE.17, publication-occurrence and audience-availability work underE.24.PUB, and architecture-decision work forC.32.PAD. - Measurement boundary: Use
C.16when a reading, coordinate, unit, threshold, score, uncertainty, or cross-case comparability claim is made. - Structural-information boundary: For an eval, these contributions are available only after
C.32.ACS,C.16, orC.25has declared what is being evaluated:C.33andC.34for captured structure, lost structure, and preservation adequacy, andC.35for recovering the kind of a generated or discovered result and assessing its adequacy for that architecture use. Use C.32.ACE for the eval-program frame, and accept each actual typed result under its own measurement, comparison, evaluation, or assertion definition and test.C.33,C.34, andC.35do not define eval programs. - Q-Bundle boundary: Use
C.25when the evaluated item is a composite quality family. - Test boundary: Use
testonly as an eval operation for a declared expectation or hard constraint. Error recognition and architecture-synthesis repair useC.32.FAIL; non-architecture defects use the local defect-subject pattern. - Decision boundary: An evaluation framed by an ACE record may reference separately admitted readings, ranks, dominance relations, trade-off-front descriptions, and other typed results. When such a result is current, identify the admitted System, dated evaluation Work, applicable operation application, and the definition and test used for that exact measurement, comparison, evaluation, or assertion result. Such a result may serve as source material for an A.10 evidence-provenance account when an evidence claim is current. Use
A.19.CPMfor explicit comparison,A.19.SelectorMechanismfor set-returning selection,C.11for local choice,G.5for selected-set result declaration, andC.32.PADfor a project architecture decision. When audience availability is current, useE.17for a source-backed publication face and return to source andE.24.PUBfor the publication occurrence, form, carrier, audience, bounded use, and availability.
Footer marker
C.32.ACE closes when the eval program names evaluated criteria, evaluated candidates or structures, exact claim scope and selected context slices, effective reference scheme and plane, evaluation window and input projections, parity frame, eval purpose, scope, intended eval operation, trigger mode, result form, method refs, proxy risks, protected counter-characteristics, receiving use, and refresh or retire condition. When actual evaluation is claimed, each exact evaluator has its A.13 core and evaluationWorkRefs name independently admitted A.15.1 Work. Optional evaluationWorkAttributionRefs appear only when the record or receiving use expressly represents precise assignment-bound attribution. Any separately obtaining operation application and typed result remain independently identified.
C.32.ACE:End
Last Updated: 2026-09-10 — upstream FPF commit a87d0ef4 (github.com/ailev/FPF)