The MVC concept is a way of partitioning an application into three parts: the model, the view, and the controller. The model represents data and the business rules that govern access to and updates of this data. The view renders the contents of a model. It accesses data through the model and specifies how that data should be presented. A controller translates interactions with the view into actions to be performed by the model. In web applications they appear as GET and POST HTTP requests. The actions performed by the model include activating business processes or changing the state of the model. Based on the user interactions and the outcome of the model actions, the controller responds by selecting an appropriate view.

The JavaServer Faces architecture clearly defines a separation between application logic and presentation while making it easy to connect the presentation layer to the application code. This design enables each member of a web application development team to focus on his or her piece of the development process, and it also provides a simple programming model to link the pieces together.