Visual design and architecture

Description

When we as a field, for the most part, turned away from BDUF (big design upfront) toward Agile methods, we unfortunately tended to turn away from architecture visualization and modeling.

Ruth Malan revisits architecture modeling in light of Agile. Through a discussion of architecture and related views, heuristics, and other guidelines, Ruth considers the role of visual design in setting design direction for the system and explores design options as part of an Agile approach. You’ll see discover how sketching and modeling is indeed a way to be Agile and learn how to use these methods to uncover key issues and alternatives and give you a better handle on your design approach. The goal isn’t to do this as big modeling upfront but to have and apply your modeling skills early, understand and shape strategic opportunity, and set design direction for the system—and to return to modeling whenever that’s the cheapest way to explore a design idea. You’ll learn when modeling is just enough, just in time, to get a better sense of design bets worth investing more in by building the ideas out and deploying at least to some in your user base to test more robustly. Along the way, you’ll explore what architecture addresses and why, including what views are useful to surface demands, risks, and forces that shape the system.