cards42.org
Cards for Analyzing and Reflecting on Doomed Software
Architecture on a beer coaster
The system is too complex to put on a piece of paper!
– this or something along those lines has certainly been a phrase you’ve heard before as an excuse to avoid visualizing your software architecture.
However, a well-structured software system can fit on a beer coaster – if you choose the right level of abstraction and scope!
Try to sketch the most important aspects of your software’s structure on this card.
- When do you encounter space limitations? Do you have too much unnecessary information in it?
- Does it get too detailed in some places? Could the system be abstracted in different ways?
- Don’t you even know what you are supposed to draw? Do you know how you can hide complexity with blackboxes and hierarchization?
Discuss your drawing approach as well as the outcome. Think about what measures you can take to communicate the structure of your software system even more clearly.
More information
- The documentation drawer system arc42 defines different views on your software system that might help you to communicate your system’s structure.
- The C4 model provides defined views and abstraction levels for visualizing your software architecture.