Make your application architecture diagram readable for your next steering committee

You can use the same set of applications to review a migration, discuss risks or present a transformation programme. The data doesn’t change. What you need people to understand does.

Before you build your application architecture diagram, be clear about the question it has to answer. For a CRM migration, which interfaces have to be carried over? For a risk committee, which applications need a decision?

That question decides which assets you include, what information you show and how you frame the view. It also helps you remove the details that pull attention away.

The autumn release makes this easier: a preview of where assets will be placed, display settings for each card, and properties on relationships. Cameras help you prepare the presentation, and named versions keep the compositions that matter.

Build an architecture diagram without starting from scratch

Your inventory already holds the assets and relationships of your IT map. A Boldo diagram reuses them: you choose what is worth showing, without redrawing everything.

To prepare a CRM migration, start from a view of the applications that exchange data with it and convert it into a diagram. Keep the relationships that help you identify the interfaces to carry over.

When you add assets, you now see a preview of where they will go before you confirm. You can see where the cards will land and choose which relationships to show with the assets already on the canvas.

From a card, you can also add related assets, one at a time or as a group.

The same asset can appear in several places on the diagram without being duplicated in the inventory. When an application plays a part in several areas of the drawing, these appearances make its links easier to follow. Each one points to the same asset and the same data.

Removing a card from the diagram does not archive the asset. So you can trim the composition and focus on the interfaces the migration affects.

Draw a diagram

Decide what each card shows

Showing the same properties everywhere keeps the presentation consistent. Some cards, though, need a different level of detail.

For a risk committee, show criticality on the applications concerned. Add the end-of-support date on the server whose replacement is up for discussion.

You can set the visible properties for each asset type, then adjust a single card with Displayed properties. Categories group properties into titled blocks, as on the CRM card below.

Before you add a property, ask whether it helps people understand the situation. Other details can stay in the inventory. Check, too, that the values you want to show are filled in.

These choices change the display, not the values in the inventory. They are kept when the diagram is embedded in a dashboard.

Describe the data flows between applications

Two applications may exchange both orders and customer profiles. A link labelled “Exchanges with” is not enough, on its own, to tell these flows apart.

Between an e-commerce site and a CRM, show the order flow and the customer profile updates as separate flows. Fill in what sets them apart, then show the properties that matter for the discussion.

Relationships can carry their own properties, defined in the metamodel. When the relationship type allows it, several relationships between the same assets can describe distinct exchanges. Their properties appear directly on the diagram.

Choose this information to fit the question at hand: the data exchanged when you prepare a migration, encryption when you discuss security. Readers then understand the role of each flow without opening the asset pages.

When you edit a relationship’s properties from the diagram, Boldo updates that relationship in the inventory.

A free arrow lets you annotate the drawing or show an assumption. It does not create a relationship in the inventory automatically.

Relationship properties

Give the layout a clear logic

As cards pile up, how you arrange them matters as much as what they show. Choose a layout that readers understand without anyone talking them through it.

To present an ERP replacement, group applications by domain. Separate the ones being replaced from the ones that stay, with a clear legend.

Automatic layout gives you a starting point. Then adjust it so the diagram reads more easily: line up comparable cards and bring together the ones whose exchanges you want to show.

An occasional crossing is sometimes better than a link that loops around the whole diagram. When a link runs across the entire canvas, move the two cards it connects closer together instead.

Groups and lanes organise the drawing without adding relationships to the inventory.

Elements hidden in layers are also hidden for viewers and in exports. Hiding organises the presentation; it does not restrict access to the data.

Arrange the layout

Prepare what you will show in the meeting

An overview to set the scene, then a close-up to discuss one interface: cameras let you prepare that path inside a single diagram.

For a transformation programme, prepare an overview and one framing per work package. Put them in the order of the meeting. During the committee, you go straight to the work package under discussion without hunting for it on the diagram.

Each camera is a named framing and copies none of the assets it shows. You switch from one to the next while presenting, including in read-only mode. The laser pointer shows participants which element you are talking about.

Before the meeting, go through the framings in order and check that the labels are still readable. For a different audience, adjust the properties shown on the cards as well: changing the framing does not change the information displayed.

During the meeting, lock your canvas so you don’t move an element by mistake. Other participants can keep editing the diagram.

To add it to a slide deck, export the diagram as an image, in full or camera by camera.

Arrange and present a diagram

Share your work and keep the milestones that matter

After the meeting, the diagram often keeps changing, and edits are saved automatically. To keep a reference point, name the version you presented, then carry on working.

Named versions keep a composition in the history. They are never deleted automatically. You can open a past version with its preview and restore it.

Pick a name that brings back the context, such as “Steering committee, 27 October”. The version keeps the diagram’s composition, while the assets keep reflecting the data in the inventory.

To send a fixed image of what you presented, use the export. To give access to the diagram as it keeps changing, use a read-only link. People can view it without a Boldo account, depending on your plan and your organisation’s rules.

Before you share the link, check what the recipient can see and choose a suitable expiry date.