Architecture canvases¶
A canvas fits the essentials of an architecture on one page, to fill in together at a whiteboard or on a shared screen. It is not a replacement for the architecture document. It is a quick way to start one, or to explain a system in a meeting.
Both canvases here come from the arc42 canvas project. They are licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0, and the files keep their authors’ names and licence. If you change them and share the result, keep the attribution and the same licence.
Architecture Inception Canvas¶
Use it at the start of a project, before there is much to document. The team fills it in together to agree what they are building, for whom, and what will shape the architecture. Its boxes cover the business case and context, a functional overview and the top three quality goals. Others hold the organisational and technical constraints, the known challenges and risks, and the architectural hypotheses that follow. Gaps that show up on the canvas are the questions to answer next.
Downloads: draw.io · PowerPoint
Architecture Communication Canvas¶
Use it to explain an existing system to someone new, such as a new team member, a stakeholder or a reviewer. On one page it gives the system’s value, its key stakeholders, its core functions and its business context. It also shows the main components and technologies, the quality requirements, the decisions that shaped the system, and its risks and missing information.
Downloads: draw.io · PowerPoint
Tips¶
- Fill it in with the team, not alone. The conversation is worth more than the finished page.
- Use sticky notes or short phrases. If a box needs a paragraph, it needs a section in the architecture document.
- Date the canvas, and redo it when the architecture changes rather than patching the old one.