RM-ODP defines and resolves many of the challenges faced by systems architects and engineers architecting a distributed computing system, large or small. This ISO standard offers powerful solutions to complex structural and semantic issues while encouraging cost-effectiveness and reusability. Architecting with RM-ODP is a complete guide to the International Standard for software architecture of distributed systems. This book identifies the available tools that currently support RM-ODP, and paves the way for new tools that are under development in the vendor community. It also covers: *Software architecture specification in an object world *Complete guide to the International Standard Reference Model of Open Distributed Processing (RM-ODP) *Enterprise-wide as well as component architecture *Applications for business, government, and university research Architecting with RM-ODP provides a best-practice approach to the creation of an architectural specification using both current practices and RM-ODP.A pair of real-life case studies uniquely illustrates the principles of project development as they teach: *Creating specifications at the appropriate level of detail *Relating business needs to architectural specification *Ensuring conformance of the implementation to the specified architecture *Identifying ways of specifying semantic behavior Systems architects, engineers, developers, program managers, and researchers will all find this definitive book an invaluable guide to the standard and its use in architecting a distributed system, testing that system, and choosing technologies for implementation that adhere to the business rules.