A system and method are presented in which the system manages the properties related to the architectural layers within the context of software development. It provides mechanisms to define the architectural layers and the additional information required by them. The method for specifying a software model comprises specifying at least one architectural layer for a software system; specifying at least one property and relating each the at least one property to one of the at least one architectural layer and to at least one model element type to which the at least one property is attached; and automatically providing assistance for specifying property contents of the at least one property using an architecture layer corresponding to the at least one property for each one of a plurality of model elements to be defined as part of a software model of the software system.