How Smartpay unified their architecture designs and improved collaboration
Results
Better collaboration and communication across teams
Linking of static and dynamic model created consistency
Quick and easy to learn for team members
Introduction
Smartpay is a New Zealand-headquartered company and a leading independent full-service payments (Credit Card, Debit Card, EFTPOS, etc.) provider in New Zealand and Australia. They're a market-leading innovator of standalone payments, integrated POS, and merchant insights solutions.
Challenges
Smartpay's architecture team experienced several challenges before using IcePanel:
- Scattered information in different Confluence pages.
- Different tools used to create diagrams (Draw.io, Mermaid.js, Visio).
- Changes needed to be updated in multiple diagrams to keep them consistent.
- Keeping diagrams up-to-date.
How IcePanel helped
IcePanel solved a range of problems, both directly and indirectly, at Smartpay.
1. Clearer alignment on abstractions
IcePanel's orientation around the C4 model made it very easy for everyone to be aligned on what level of detail belongs in which diagrams and elements.
2. Modelling instead of diagramming
Moving to using architectural models where diagrams are effectively "reports" from the model was a fundamental step in improving team efficiency.
It meant more work when authoring original content, but drastically reduced the overhead as the existing model scope grew. It made content easier to update/extend, maintain, enabled versioning, and audit trails.
3. Linked dynamic and static models
Being able to solution using a dynamic logic flow-centric process that leveraged the static elements and connectors (relationships/dependencies), while new ones were only created as a need for them was identified, significantly helped guide the user along the re-use path and ensured that the dynamic and static models were consistent.
4. Better collaboration and communication
Being able to work with various business and technical stakeholders during the solutioning process was essential. IcePanel's simple UI, easy learning curve, and ability to export dynamic process flows to PlantUML sequence diagrams made a big difference in being able to co-author, work in real time, and publish updated solution documentation.
The "state" properties and "draft" diagram features helped with working through "what if" scenarios without creating large merge problems.
Why they choose IcePanel
IcePanel had several advantages compared to other tools that have been used in the past:
- It was quick and easy to pick up, which was very important when trying to get a wide range of stakeholders to co-author or collaborate.
- The UX was quick for creating and updating content, which was essential when modelling in real time with stakeholders.
- The C4 alignment was great for guiding the user to the right level of detail at the right time.
- The linking of the dynamic and static model content was fantastic for maintaining consistency/integrity across those two views.
- The ability to export flows to PlantUML was very helpful for documenting/sharing point-in-time dynamic flow logic.
- The tagging functionality was great for generating marked-up diagrams for different viewpoints, such as Project Scope/Impact, PCI DSS scope, Physical Locations, etc.
"We are rapidly, organically, building out our model as we touch different products and technology, and it is making it much easier to quickly find information about how our landscape hangs together."
Impact of IcePanel
IcePanel made solution modelling easier. Unlike most architecture tools, it has had a positive response from most people who have used it. They're rapidly and organically building out their model as they touch different products and technology, making it much easier to quickly find information about how their landscape hangs together.
In short, IcePanel helped:
- Showcase the complexity of their systems to the different audiences.
- Give software engineers a complete picture of all company systems and services.
- Keep the architecture diagrams updated on a single platform.
Is IcePanel for your team?
Try it out for free and see what you think.
