What is a Visualization?

Views for Stakeholders

A visualization (architecture visualization) is a graphical representation of a model or view (a filter of a model). The same model or view can be visualized for various stakeholders in different ways that resonate better with the mindset of the viewers.

There are many types of architecture visualizations. The visualizations are mainly used to manage transformation in companies.

This Atlas page shows a generated Enterprise Architecture Blueprint.

The visualization above has been generated using a visualization template. The template is populated with an enterprise model (a set of related enterprise data entities).

On this visualization, you see four layers. Layers are typical for architecture visualizations. Each layer is a different perspective or view of the company. And this visualization brings all these views together into a comprehensive view.

The top layer of the visualization is the market layer and shows the markets, target audiences, products, goods, and services this company provides.

The layer below is the business layer, it shows the business domains, functions, processes, and roles the company has. Of course, you can visualize other items in a layer if that is more appropriate in your case.

In the applications layer the information domains, services, applications, data objects, and interfaces of the company are shown.

In the IT Infrastructure layer you see the infra domains, services, servers, networks, clouds, routers, hubs, gateways, switches, and firewalls that together form the IT of the company.

This visualization also gives you the insights that this or any company is a holistic whole. If you change one thing, it has an impact on many other things.

You see a few relationships in these visualizations. They show the dependencies processes have on applications and IT infrastructure components.

What is an Architecture Visualization?

Architecture is a set of concepts that are applied to a system or structure, where the concept principles (the working mechanisms of the concepts) explain how the concepts work and will provide benefits to the system or structure.

Given the provided definitions of architecture and visualization, an architecture visualization is a visualization of the concepts, principles, standards, and technologies of aspects of a system, structure, or solution.

The visualization above is an architectural visualization in the sense that at the right top of the visualization in the border, the concepts and principles are named. In the layer, you see the element (the functional parts of the concepts.

On the left border, you see the information that contains parts of the strategy. This strategy requires certain concepts, principles, and standards to be implemented in the company.

Dragon1 as a platform supports you in generating these kind of visualizations and creating these kind of visualizations.

This visualization shows an overview of shapes per layer.

The visualization above is a generated diagram and can be accessed here for live viewing.

On Dragon1, it is made very easy to generate visualizations with any type of layers and column layout that contains these shapes. Here you can read more about how to generate visualizations

Interactive Visualizations

All the visualizations you create are generated in real-time from data from the .dragon1 File or data from the repository. This enables the visualizations to be interactive. This means that if you click on a shape, you get detailed information about the entity it represents. Also, it could be that if you click on a shape you are forwarded to another visualization or related document. This all depends on how the creator of the visualization has created his visualization.

Types of Architecture Visualizations

Dragon1 defines the following main classes of architecture visualizations:

Landscape
Roadmap
Blueprint
Design Sketch
Heatmap
Details Diagram
Overview Diagram

These types of visualizations can be used for the various common architectures in an organization, resulting in the following types:

Enterprise Framework
Enterprise Landscape
Enterprise Roadmap
Enterprise Blueprint
Enterprise Design Sketch
Enterprise Heatmap
Enterprise Artist Impression
Business Framework
Business Landscape
Business Roadmap
Business Blueprint
Business Design Sketch
Business Heatmap
Business Artist Impression
Data Framework
Data Landscape
Data Roadmap
Data Blueprint
Data Design Sketch
Data Heatmap
Data Artist Impression
Application Framework
Application Landscape
Application Roadmap
Application Blueprint
Application Design Sketch
Application Heatmap
Application Artist Impression
Technology Framework
Technology Landscape
Technology Roadmap
Technology Blueprint
Technology Design Sketch
Technology Heatmap
Technology Artist Impression
Security Framework
Security Landscape
Security Roadmap
Security Blueprint
Security Design Sketch
Security Heatmap
Security Artist Impression
Solution Framework
Solution Landscape
Solution Roadmap
Solution Blueprint
Solution Design Sketch
Solution Heatmap
Solution Artist Impression
Architecture Diagram
Concept Design Sketch
Principles Details Diagram
Process Application Landscape
Application Skills Landscape
Concepts Overview Diagram
Processes Overview diagram
Applications Overview diagram

On this Dragon1 Help, you will find an example of most of these types of visualizations.

Generating an Architecture Visualization

Dragon1 supports you in generating any type of visualization. Click on the link to read more about it.

Creating an Architecture Visualization

Dragon1 supports you in creating any type of visualization. Click on the link to read more about it.

Managing with Architecture Visualizations

Dragon1 supports you in managing with architecture visualizations. Click on the link to read more about it.