How to present architecture issues to higher

management
-

mention the red information only

Market drivers Options Typical performance Power budget
A B

transfer/sec
MPEG4
cost B
A B
integration MP3
ttm multiple suppliers color display infra 7 8
wow
nifty features
fashionable design
ePen A sensor 6 8
GPS sensor
DRM Hollywood pact GSM
display 20 17
standards UTMS power 3 4
BT total 36 37
802.11b
load

Bill of material Schedule fte's profit-investment

A B
A B 302304 310 318 326 A B
salesprice 10 10
infra 7 8 A infra 2 8 cost/p 3 4
sensor 6 8 control 6 4 units 1M 1M
display 20 17 302304 308 322 326330 display 6 8 sales 10M 10M
power 3 4 appl 3 3 costs 3M 4M
total 36 37 B total 17 23 investment 2M 3M
profit 5M 3M

recommendation Operating principle worst-case Power details

A B A B
recommendation: performance infra 7 8 infra 7 8
select A sensor 6 8 sensor 6 8

transfer/sec
display 20 17 display 20 17
B
backup material
power 3 4 power 3 4
total 36 37 total 36 37
follow up: A A B
infra 7 8
allocate Jan, Piet, Klaas sensor 6 8
per 1/11 display 20 17
power 3 4
go/nogo 1/1/03 load total 36 37

Gerrit Muller
USN-SE
Hasbergsvei 36 P.O. Box 235, NO-3603 Kongsberg Norway
gaudisite@[Link]

This paper has been integrated in the book “Systems Architecting: A Business
Perspective", [Link] published by
CRC Press in 2011.

Abstract
Architects struggle with their visibility at higher management echelons. The
introvert nature of architects is a severe handicap. Participation of architects
in management teams is important for balanced technical sound decisions and
strategy. Improved managerial communication skills of architects are required.
This article describes how to give a more effective presentation to higher
management teams. Subjects discussed are the preparation, content and form, do
and don’t advise.

Distribution
This article or presentation is written as part of the Gaudí project. The Gaudí project philosophy is to improve
by obtaining frequent feedback. Frequent feedback is pursued by an open creation process. This document is
published as intermediate or nearly mature version to get feedback. Further distribution is allowed as long as the
document remains complete and unchanged.

All Gaudí documents are available at:

[Link]

version: 0.1 status: concept March 27, 2021

1 Introduction
The architect bridges the technology world with the other business related worlds,
by understanding these other worlds and by having ample know-how of technologies.
Management teams are responsible for the overall business performance, which in
the end is expressed in financial results.
Many architects and management teams are captured in a vicious circle:
• architects complain about management decisions and lack of know-how of
managers

• managers complain about lack of input data and invisible architects

One way to break this vicious circle is to improve the managerial communi-
cation skills of architects. We address a frequently needed skill: presenting an
architecture issue to a management team.

management

financial

market organizational logistics

issues !
technology

Figure 1: Architectural issues related to managerial viewpoints

The architect should contribute to the managerial decision process by commu-

nicating technology options and consequences of technological decisions. Figure 1
shows a number of the relevant, somewhat overlapping, viewpoints. The figure
indicates what links architects should communicate to management teams.
Architects must have a good understanding of their target audience. Figure 2
characterizes the managers in management teams. Their main job is to run a
healthy business, which explains many of these characterizations: action oriented,
solution rather than problem, impatient, busy, bottom-line oriented: profit, return
on investment, market share, et cetera, and want facts not believes. These managers
operate with many people all with their own personal interests. This means that
managers operate in a political context (something which architects like to ignore).
Some characteristics of management teams depend on the company culture.
For example, the amount of technology know-how can vary from extensive to

Gerrit Muller USN-SE

How to present architecture issues to higher management
March 27, 2021 version: 0.1
page: 1
 common characteristics highly variable characteristics
+ action-oriented
? technology knowledge
+ solution rather than problem from extensive to shallow
+ impatient, busy ? style from power play to
+ want facts not beliefs inspirational leadership

+ operate in a political context

+ bottom-line oriented:
profit, return on investment,
market share, etc.

Figure 2: Characteristics of managers in higher management teams

shallow. Or, for example, the management style can vary from power play to inspi-
rational leadership.

2 Preparation
Presentations to higher management teams must always be prepared with multiple
people: a small preparation team. The combined insights of the preparation team
enlarge the coverage of important issues, both technical as well as business. the
combined understanding of the target audience is also quite valuable. Figure 3
shows how to prepare the content of the presentation as well as how to prepare for
the audience.
The content of the presentation must be clear, address the main issues, and
convey the message, see also 3. The message must have substance for managers,
which means that it should be fact based. The first steps are gathering facts and
performing analysis. Based on these facts the goal and message of the presen-
tation must be articulated. All this information must be combined in a presen-
tation. When the presentation content is satisfactory the form must be polished
(templates, colors, readability, et cetera). Although this has been described as a
sequential process, the normal incremental spiral approach should be followed,
going through these steps in 2-3 passes.
The members of management teams operate normally in a highly political
context, mutually as well as with people in their context. This politics interferes
significantly with the decision making. The political situation should be mapped by
the preparation team, the political forces must be identified and understood. This
is done by analyzing the audience, their background and their interests. The prepa-
ration team can gain a lot of insight by discussing the expected responses of the
management team. At some moment the preparation team can simulate (role-play)

Gerrit Muller USN-SE

How to present architecture issues to higher management
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 Always prepare with small team!
content mutual interaction understand audience
70% 30%
of effort of effort
+ gather facts
+ gather audience background
+ perform analysis
+ analysis audience interests
+ identify goal and message
+ identify expected responses
+ make presentation
+ simulate audience,
+ polish presentation form exercise presentation

Figure 3: How to prepare

the management team in a proof-run of the presentation. The understanding of the

audience must be used to select and structure the content part of the presentation.
This activity should be time-multiplexed with the content preparation; 70% of the
time working on content, 30% of the time for reflection and understanding of the
audience.

3 The presentation material

+ clear problem statement (what, why)

supported by
+ solution exploration (how) facts and figures

+ options, recommendations

+ expected actions or decisions

Figure 4: Recommended content

Figure 4 provides guidelines for the contents of the presentation. A clear

problem statement and an exploration of solution(s) should address the technical
issues as well as the translation to the business consequences. Normally a range of
options are provided The options are compared and recommendations are provided.
Note that options that are unfavorable from architectural point of view are never-
theless options. It is the challenge for the architect to articulate why these options

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are bad and should not be chosen. Architect enable and streamline the decision
making by providing clear recommendations and by indicating what actions or
decisions are required.
All content of the presentation should be to the point, factual and quantified.
Quantified does not mean certain, often quite the opposite, future numbers are
estimates based on many assumptions. The reliability of the information should be
evident in the presentation. Many facts can be derived from the past. Figures from
the past are useful to “calibrate” future options. Deviations from trends in the past
are suspect and should be explained.

mention the red information only

Market drivers Options Typical performance Power budget
A B
transfer/sec
MPEG4
cost B
A B
integration MP3
ttm multiple suppliers color display infra 7 8
wow
nifty features
fashionable design
ePen A sensor 6 8
GPS sensor
DRM Hollywood pact GSM
display 20 17
standards UTMS power 3 4
BT total 36 37
802.11b
load

Bill of material Schedule fte's profit-investment

A B
A B 302304 310 318 326 A B
salesprice 10 10
infra 7 8 A infra 2 8 cost/p 3 4
sensor 6 8 control 6 4 units 1M 1M
display 20 17 302304 308 322 326330 display 6 8 sales 10M 10M
power 3 4 appl 3 3 costs 3M 4M
total 36 37 B total 17 23 investment 2M 3M
profit 5M 3M

recommendation Operating principle worst-case Power details

A B A B
recommendation: performance infra 7 8 infra 7 8
select A sensor 6 8 sensor 6 8
transfer/sec

display 20 17 display 20 17
B
backup material
power 3 4 power 3 4
total 36 37 total 36 37
follow up: A A B
infra 7 8
allocate Jan, Piet, Klaas sensor 6 8
per 1/11 display 20 17
power 3 4
go/nogo 1/1/03 load total 36 37

Figure 5: Mentioned info, shown info and backup info

The presentation material should cover more than is actually being presented
during the presentation itself. Some supporting data should be present on the
sheets, without mentioning the data explicitly during the presentation. This allows
the audience to assess the validity of the presented numbers, without the need to
zoom in on all the details.
It is also useful to have additional backup material available with more in depth
supporting data. This can be used to answer questions or to focus the discussion:
speculation can be prevented by providing actual data.
The use of demonstrators and the show of artifacts (components, mock-ups)
makes the presentation more lively. The demonstrations should be short and attractive
(from customer point of view), while illustrating the value and technological possi-
bilities and issues.
Architects prefer to focus on the content, form is supportive to transfer the
content. However architects should be aware that managers can be distracted by
the form of a presentation, potentially spoiling the entire meeting by small issues.

Gerrit Muller USN-SE

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 poor form can easily distract from purpose and content

presentation material presenter's appearance

+ professional + well dressed

+ moderate use of + self confident but open

color and animations

+ readable

+ use demos and show artifacts but stay yourself,

stay authentic

Figure 6: Form is important

Figure 6 gives a number of recommendations with respect to the form of the presen-
tation and the appearance of the presenter.
The presentation material (slides, demonstrators, video, drawings, et cetera)
has to look professional. Slides will use color and other presentation features.
However, moderation in the use of colors, animations and other presentation features
is recommended; an overload of these colors and features does not look profes-
sional and will distract the audience from the actual content. Information on the
slides has to be readable: use large enough fonts and use sufficient contrast with
the background. Pay special attention to quality and readability, when copy-pasting
information from other sources. Sometimes it is better to recreate a high quality
table or graph than to save effort by copy-pasting an unreadable table or graph.
The appearance of the presenter can also make or break the presentation. The
presenter should give sufficient attention to clothes and overall appearance. Don’t
exaggerate this, you should stay yourself and still be authentic. Other people
immediately sense it when the appearance is too exaggerated, which is also damaging
for your image.

4 The Presentation
Figures 7 and 8 show in the don’t column a number of pitfalls for an architect when
presenting to higher management teams. The preferred interaction pattern is given
in the do column.
The pitfalls in Figure 7, preaching believes, underestimating know-how of managers,
and telling managers what they did wrong, are caused by insufficient understanding
of the target audience. In these cases the opinion of the architect is too dominant,
opinions work counterproductive. Overselling creates a problem for the future:
expectations are created that can not be met. The consequence of overselling is

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How to present architecture issues to higher management
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 do not do
- preach beliefs + quantify, show figures
and facts
- underestimate technology + create faith in your knowledge
knowledge of managers
- tell them what they did wrong + focus on objectives
- oversell + manage expectations

Figure 7: Don’t force your opinion, understand the audience

loss of credibility and potentially lack of support in tougher times. Architects must
manage the expectations of the audience.
When presenting the architect tries to achieve multiple objectives:

• Create awareness of the problem and potential solutions by quantification

and by showing figures and facts.

• Show architecting competence in these areas, with the message being: “you,
the manager, can delegate the technical responsibility to me”. This creates
faith in the architect’s know-how.

• Facilitate decision making by translating the problem and solution(s) in business

consequences, with the focus on objectives.

This means that sufficient technological content need to be shown, at least to create
faith in the architect’s competence. Underestimation of the managerial know-
how is arrogant, but mostly very dangerous. Some managers have a significant
historic know-how, which enable them to assess strengths and weaknesses quickly.
Providing sufficient depth to this type of manager is rewarding. The less informed
manager does not need to fully understand the technical part, but at least should
get the feeling that he or she understands the issues.
The impatience and action orientation of managers makes them very dominant,
with the risk that they take over the meeting or presentation. Figure 8 shows a
number of these risks and the possible counter measures:

Managers hijacking the meeting can be prevented by maintaining the lead as

presenter.

Build up tensions by withholding facts or solutions, but be to the point and direct.
For example, it can be wise to start with a summary of the main facts and
conclusions, so that the audience know where the presentation is heading.

Gerrit Muller USN-SE

How to present architecture issues to higher management
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 do not do
- let one of the managers hijack + maintain the lead
the meeting
- build up tensions by withholding + be to the point and direct
facts or solutions
- be lost or panic at unexpected + acknowledge input, indicate
inputs or alternatives consequences (facts based)

Figure 8: How to cope with managerial dominance

Be lost or panic at unexpected inputs or alternatives. Most managers are fast and
have a broad perspective that helps them to come with unforeseen options.
Acknowledge inputs and indicate the consequences of alternatives as far as
you can see them (fact based!).

An example of an unexpected input might be to outsource a proposed development

to a low-cost country. The outsourcing of developments of core components might
require lots of communication and traveling, creating costs. Such consequence has
to be put on the table, but refrain from concluding that it is (im)possible.

5 Exercise
The SARCH course [1] on System Architecting contains an exercise, where the
participants can apply then lessons learned by giving a presentation to a (simulated)
management team. The presenter gives his presentation for the participants and the
teacher, who play the role of this higher management team.

+ Bring a clear architecture message to

+ a Management team at least 2 hierarchical levels higher

+ with 10 minutes for presentation including discussion

(no limitation on number of slides)

* architecture message =
technology options in relation with market/product

* address the concerns of the management stakeholders:

translation required from technology issues into
business consequences (months, fte's, turnover, profit, investments)

Figure 9: Exercise presentation to higher management

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 Figure 9 shows the description of this exercise. The group of participants is
divided in 4 teams of about 4 people, preferably from the same domain. These
teams have somewhat less than 2 hours for the preparation of the presentation. The
exercise is explained to them several days before and the teams are also formed
days before. This enables the team to determine a subject and message in a background
process, during lunch and in the breaks. Determining the subject and message
requires quite some elapsed time. It is highly recommended to take a subject from
real-life: ”What you always wanted to tell topmanagement”.

present and
discuss feedback

prepare in team of 4 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4

13:30 14:00 15:00 16:00 17:00

Figure 10: Schedule of the presentation exercise

Figure 10 shows the schedule of the exercise. Every presentation is 10 minutes

sharp, including the interaction with the management team. Directly after the
presentation feedback is given by the participants as well as by the teacher. This
feedback should follow the normal feedback guidelines: mentioning the strong
points, before discussing the options for improvement. The teacher must ensure
that sufficient feedback is given, the material in this exercise can be used as guideline.
The limited preparation time implies that the result will also be limited. The
form will be limited (handwritten flipovers) and most of the historical data will be
made up.
The teacher should stimulate the complete group to really participate in the role
play, it can also be a lot of fun.

References
[1] Gerrit Muller. CTT course SARCH. [Link]
[Link], 1999.

[2] Gerrit Muller. The system architecture homepage. [Link]

[Link]/[Link], 1999.

Gerrit Muller USN-SE

How to present architecture issues to higher management
March 27, 2021 version: 0.1
page: 8
History
Version: 0.1, date: August 17, 2010 changed by: Gerrit Muller
• textual updates
• changed status to concept
Version: 0, date: October 30, 2002 changed by: Gerrit Muller
• Created, no changelog yet

Gerrit Muller USN-SE

How to present architecture issues to higher management
March 27, 2021 version: 0.1
page: 9