Software Architecture using UML

Though UML has been very popular in modelling software, I wonder how much of UML is being used in software architecture. I am an architect my self and normally my architecture artifacts are in one or the other office suite document formats (.doc, .vsd, .ppt) with no formal notations. I always found UML is a natural fit at the low level of modelling rather than at a level of architecture (use cases diagrams are an exception). I have never felt comfortable when using UML at the architecture level and it seemed very artificial.

Recently I have been reading about an article on UML 2 by scott ambler. I completely agree with his views on there is nothing much in UML 2 that is significant. However, the good news is that UML 2 has brought in some good focus on architecture level modelling. The activity diagrams are overhauled to make them more applicable to business activity modelling. The component diagrams are overhauled as well to make them more simpler to use. Package diagrams are formally added for providing a bird's eye view of the classes and packages. However, I feel UML still lacks a sound business process modelling notation (something like BPMN) and a formal data modelling profile.

I am planning to publish detailed paper on this subject. Watch out..