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Software Architecture Guide

Business Model Canvas

Explanation

Section titled “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

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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

Section titled “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

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  • 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.
Section titled “Related”

Sources

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