Architecture communication
On this page 9 topics
Overview
Topics
- Presenting solutions to executives and engineering teams
Learn first
4 h of practice (estimate)
Learning outcomes
- Present a solution to executives in business terms with a clear ask.
- Present the same solution to engineering teams with the technical depth they need.
- Defend a design under challenge, separating facts, assumptions, and trade-offs.
- Use diagrams and narratives that fit each audience.
Lessons
Lab and exercises
Lab
ARC-044-LAB1 · Present Larkspur
Outcomes: 1–4 · Time: ~4 h
- Build a ten-minute executive presentation with a clear ask, options, roadmap, cost and benefit, risks, and next steps; prepare backup slides.
- Build a 30-minute technical session for engineering with context, structure, interfaces, failure cases, and fixed-versus-flexible decisions.
- Present to a role-played executive panel; then to a role-played engineering panel that challenges the design.
- Label each answer as fact, assumption, or trade-off; log unanswered challenges as follow-ups with owners and dates.
- Write a short reflection on what you would change.
Acceptance: executives can state the decision asked of them; the engineering panel's challenges are answered with evidence or recorded as follow-ups.
Exercises (case-based; five exercises)
| ID | Outcome | Task |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-044-EX01 | 1 | Rewrite the opening of a draft executive presentation ("Our architecture uses an event-driven integration layer…") so that it starts with the ask and the business benefit. |
| ARC-044-EX02 | 1 | List the headline facts an executive needs on one slide for the Larkspur recommendation, including stated assumptions. |
| ARC-044-EX03 | 2 | Plan a 30-minute session for the order-fulfilment team: agenda, which diagrams, and what is fixed versus team-decided. |
| ARC-044-EX04 | 3 | A panel member says "you cannot guarantee stock accuracy across 120 stores". Write a reply separating fact, assumption, and trade-off. |
| ARC-044-EX05 | 4 | Choose the diagrams and narrative for (a) the executive board, (b) the store operations leads, (c) the engineering teams; justify each. |
Show solutions
- EX01 "We ask you to approve the platform and phase-one budget; in six months online orders will show real store stock, cutting cancelled orders" then the minimum of how.
- EX02 The decision, recommended option and why, first-value date, five-year cost and benefit with ROI and key assumptions, top three risks, next steps.
- EX03 Context and constraints (5), component and sequence views (10), contracts and failure cases (10), questions logged (5); fixed: principles, contracts, NFR targets; team-decided: internal structure within them.
- EX04 Fact: test results on stock sync lag; assumption: order rates and store scan discipline, to be confirmed by a date; trade-off: reservation window and a safety buffer versus availability; follow-up: pilot-store measurement.
- EX05 Board: context diagram and roadmap one-pager, business story; store leads: a "what changes for you" view with a process flow; engineers: component, sequence, and deployment views and contracts.
All four outcomes are also covered by the lab acceptance and the quiz.
Workplace evidence: a solution presentation that secured approval or funding.
Quiz
Outcomes: O1 executive presentation · O2 engineering presentation · O3 defending a design · O4 diagrams and narratives per audience.
A self-check for you: nothing is graded, saved or sent anywhere. Choose an answer, then check it. You can try again as often as you like.
Practical part
Presentation and defense scored on the COM dimension: the ten-minute executive talk and the 30-minute technical defense on the Larkspur lab. Pass: quiz at least 8/10, at least four of five exercises correct, and a lab where executives can state the ask and every challenge is answered or logged.
Common mistakes
Technical detail for executives; claiming certainty you do not have.
Assessment
Presentation and defense scored on the COM dimension.
Workplace evidence
A solution presentation that secured approval or funding.
Career relevance
The final step of every solution — and of this curriculum.