Swipht breaks this phase into two main areas: fleshing out the architecture baseline and evolving it in increments or iterations toward the final product.

During each iteration, the various pieces prepared during the elaboration phase are expanded and revised, building up greater stability as the system evolves in correctness and completeness.

New artifacts are produced during this phase other than the software itself. These include documentation, both internal and for the end-users; test-beds and test suites; and deployment collateral to support the next phase.