Architecture Communication
General material on communicating architecture.
2 to work through
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beginner
You have designed a system. Explain the same architecture to a CEO, an engineering manager and an engineer. What changes?
2 min answer -
intermediate
In a design review, a respected senior engineer proposes an approach you believe is wrong. The room defers to them. How do you handle it?
2 min answer
8 terms in this topic
Architecture Decision Log
The ordered, immutable collection of a system's decision records, read as a history rather than as a specification.
practiceC4 Model
A set of four nested diagram levels — context, container, component, code — that keeps each diagram at one consistent level of abstraction.
practiceData-Flow Diagram
A diagram of how data moves between processes, stores and external entities, with trust boundaries drawn on it.
practiceNegotiation
Reaching an agreement that both sides own, by trading on interests rather than arguing positions.
practicePresenting to Engineers
Presenting a design at the level of mechanism, including the alternatives rejected and the parts you are still unsure about.
practicePresenting to Executives
Leading with the decision and the business consequence, at a level of abstraction where technology names do not appear.
practiceSequence Diagram
A diagram showing the ordered exchange of messages between participants over time, used to make an interaction's control flow and failure points explicit.
practiceTechnical Proposal
A written argument for a course of action, circulated for review before the work starts, structured so that disagreement surfaces early and cheaply.
Neighbouring topics
Architecture Diagrams
Choosing an audience and refusing to mix levels of abstraction.
No content yetC4 Model
Context, container, component and code as four separate diagrams.
No content yetContext Diagrams
The system as one box, with its users and external systems.
No content yetSequence Diagrams
Ordered message exchange, and walking the failure of each arrow.
No content yetData-Flow Diagrams
Following the data across trust boundaries rather than the calls.
No content yetDeployment Diagrams
What runs where, in which zone, behind which boundary.
No content yetCommunicating Threat Models
Making risk legible to people who will fund or accept it.
No content yetWriting Decision Records
Context, alternatives and consequences, written once and never edited.
No content yetTechnical Proposals
A written argument circulated before the decision feels made.
No content yetArchitecture Reviews
Reviewing early enough to influence rather than to veto.
No content yetPresenting to Executives
Decision first, cost, risk, and what happens if we do nothing.
No content yetPresenting to Engineers
Mechanism, alternatives rejected, and what you are unsure about.
No content yetExplaining Trade-offs
Naming what was given up, and the condition that would change it.
No content yetHandling Disagreement
Arguing from consequences, and escalating in the room.
No content yetNegotiation
Trading on interests rather than positions, with priced options.
No content yetDocumentation Practice
Keeping documents close to the code and honest about staleness.
No content yetPresentation Skills
Structure, pacing and the slide that carries the decision.
No content yetWritten Communication
Writing that survives being read without you in the room.
No content yetFacilitation
Running a design session that reaches a decision.
No content yet