1. A method for specifying a software model, comprising: specifying at least one architectural layer for a software system; specifying at least one property and relating each said at least one property to one of said at least one architectural layer and to at least one model element type to which said at least one property is attached; automatically providing assistance for specifying property contents of said at least one property using an architecture layer corresponding to said at least one property for each one of a plurality of model elements to be defined as part of a software model of said software system.