# Business Model Canvas

**In short:** The Business Model Canvas describes a business on one page in nine blocks: who it serves, what it offers, how it delivers, what it costs and what it earns. Architects read it to understand the business behind a system.

## Explanation

The Business Model Canvas is a one-page template. It splits a business model into nine blocks. Together they cover who you serve, what you offer, how you deliver it, what it costs and what it earns.

The nine blocks are:

- value proposition
- customer segments
- channels
- customer relationships
- key resources
- key activities
- key partners
- revenue streams
- cost structure

Short descriptions of each block work well as guiding questions. For example, revenue streams ask how the company earns income from each customer segment.

**Layout.** Strategyzer explains the layout with a theater analogy. Revenue needs a customer who pays for a value proposition. The front stage, where the customer meets the business, needs backstage infrastructure.

**Blocks depend on each other.** If you move a customer segment, the channels, activities and costs must move with it. Read the canvas as one connected whole, not nine separate lists.

**How to use it.** Strategyzer gives this advice:

- Use one canvas per business model.
- Treat the canvas as a hypothesis.
- Date and version it.
- Redraw it as evidence arrives.

**Related tools.** Lean Canvas is an adaptation for startups. The Value Proposition Canvas is a later, related tool by the same authors. arc42 lists the Business Model Canvas as the classic canvas for business models.

**Use in architecture documentation.** arc42 section 1 asks for an explicit overview of stakeholders. These are all parties involved in the system or affected by it. The canvas's customers and partners are a natural starting point for that list. Section 1 also limits quality goals to the top 3-5 and separates architecture quality goals from project goals. See *arc42 Introduction and Goals* for details.

## Example

A small online bakery fills in a canvas. Its customer segment is office workers. Its value proposition is fresh bread delivered before work. Partners include a delivery service. When the bakery adds a second segment, restaurants, the team redraws the canvas. Channels, activities and costs change too. The architect then lists office customers, restaurants and the delivery partner as candidate stakeholders.

## Trade-offs

The canvas is static. It says little about how parts interact or about the environment. It describes the business, not a system or its architecture. Architects still need other documents for the system itself. Because the canvas is a hypothesis, its content can change as evidence arrives.



## Checks

- The stakeholder overview names the customers and partners that appear in the business model.
- If a canvas is cited, it is dated and versioned.
- The introduction lists only the top 3-5 quality goals.

## Related

- [arc42 Introduction and Goals](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/documentation/arc42-introduction-and-goals.md)
- [Stakeholder Identification](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/stakeholder-identification.md)
- [Stakeholder](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/stakeholder.md)
- [Vision Statement](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/vision-stakeholders/vision-statement.md)
- [Architecture Canvas](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/documentation/architecture-canvas.md)
- [Business Architecture](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/enterprise-architecture/business-architecture.md)
- [Bounded Context Canvas](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/domain-driven-design/bounded-context-canvas.md)
- [Business Domain Understanding](https://arc.fuet.ch/concepts/domain-driven-design/business-domain-understanding.md)

## Sources

- [Business Model Canvas – Download the Official Template](https://www.strategyzer.com/library/the-business-model-canvas) — strategyzer.com, accessed 2026-11-09
- [5 Questions You Never Dared to Ask About the Business Model Canvas](https://www.strategyzer.com/library/5-questions-business-mode-canvas) — strategyzer.com, accessed 2026-11-09
- [What is a Business Model?](https://www.strategyzer.com/library/what-is-a-business-model) — strategyzer.com, accessed 2026-11-09
- [Business model canvas - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business_Model_Canvas) — en.wikipedia.org, accessed 2026-11-09
- [1 - Introduction and Goals | arc42 Documentation](https://docs.arc42.org/section-1/) — docs.arc42.org, accessed 2026-11-09
- [Canvas 101 - arc42](https://arc42.org/resources/canvas-101/) — arc42.org, accessed 2026-11-09