Chapter 16
Activities to Make the Design Tangible

Things get real when we stop talking and start making. In the make mindset, we turn abstract ideas, such as design concepts, into tangible things we can easily share with others. Tangible things facilitate communication between stakeholders. They can also be directly tested to see how well a design addresses our needs. Making something is a great way to reason about the architecture. Even making only a part of an artifact or a draft can serve as a useful thinking exercise.

Software architects make more than just box-and-line diagrams. We also have more tools in our toolbox than just diagrams. Building prototypes, writing documents, running experiments, crunching numbers, telling stories, and even play acting are all great ways to show an architecture to others instead of only telling them about it.

The artifacts in this chapter will help you make the architecture tangible. You can create most of these artifacts on your own, but sometimes it’s more fun (and informative) to pair with someone or collaborate with a larger group. Most artifacts here take 30 minutes or less to create.

Since the purpose of making something is to share it, review the artifacts you make with your team and relevant stakeholders. They’ll need to know about the ideas contained in the things you make. Reviews also let you check that the design concepts in the architecture align with your understanding of the problem. The activities in Chapter 17, ​Activities to Evaluate Design Options​ will show you how to facilitate reviews.