Domain 6 · 14% of the exam
Stakeholder Communication & Lifecycle Management
Run discovery, communicate trade-offs, manage feedback and SLAs, document designs, and support the full lifecycle.
Objectives
- 6.1
Conduct structured discovery and requirement gathering
Run structured discovery that surfaces goals, constraints, data, owners, and measurable success metrics — turn findings into testable requirements before picking a stack.
- 6.2
Communicate architectural decisions and trade-offs
Explain decisions with options, trade-offs, costs, risks, and rationale stakeholders can act on — record them in ADRs so rejected alternatives stay visible.
- 6.3
Manage stakeholder feedback loops and expectation alignment (including SLAs)
Keep feedback loops and SLA expectations aligned through delivery — publish agreed SLAs, review quality and cost on a cadence, and escalate expectation drift early.
- 6.4
Document architectures and provide implementation guidance
Document architecture with diagrams, decision rationale, interface contracts, ownership, and failure runbooks so builders and operators can implement safely.
- 6.5
Support lifecycle phases (discovery, design, handoff, monitoring, iteration)
Support discovery through design, handoff, monitoring, and iteration with explicit exit criteria and ownership — architects who vanish after design miss the lifecycle.