In the world there are many reference architectures that make it easier to start working with architecture in an organization.
Also auditing or benchmarking an architecture can be done with a reference architecture.
Dragon1 defines reference architecture as: an architecture that is used or can be used as reference.
This normally means that a reference architecture points to other implementations of the concepts that are part of the reference architecture.
In practice we see a different usage of term reference architeture, as in that the enterprise architecture of an organization is called reference architecture and that is a reference architecture for business lines, business unit, departments, programs and projects.
European Reference Architectures
https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/solutions/e-documents-reference-architecture_en
https://ec.europa.eu/digital-single-market/en/news/new-version-european-interoperability-reference-architecture-available
https://www.plattform-i40.de/I40/Redaktion/EN/Downloads/Publikation/hm-2018-manufacturing.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=2
American Reference Architectures
https://dodcio.defense.gov/Library/DoD-Architecture-Framework/
https://dodcio.defense.gov/Portals/0/Documents/DIEA/Ref_Archi_Description_Final_v1_18Jun10.pdf
More Information
If you have a link to a reference architecture you would like to see added, please contact us at specs@dragon1.com