Investigative Architecture – The Conceptual Diagram

Formal UML-based notation provides a powerful tool for architecture design and communication. There is also a compelling need for crisp, clear, and marketing-friendly architecture diagrams for use in executive presentations. The creation of polished, clear and well-scoped renditions of an architecture can be more art than science, so we propose a diagram that balances the appropriate level of formality for accuracy with enough flexibility for targeted marketing. This same view also provides a clear “at a glance” representation of an architecture, setting the scope for more detailed, formal views.

This instructional session presents concrete, usable techniques and structured ground rules to make sense of your technology enterprise for a non-technical, executive-level audience. We will walk through a case study in order to illustrate the techniques, and present strategies to map to and from more detailed formal work products.