State of Software Architecture Survey 2026

Introduction

Diagramming tools (e.g. Miro, LucidChart, Draw.io)

Modelling tools (e.g. IcePanel, LeanIX, Ardoq)

AI assistants or agents (e.g. ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Cursor)

Diagrams-as-code (e.g. Mermaid, Structurizr)

Collaborative wiki (text, links, referenced diagrams)

Business views (Level 1 Context, BPMN, System Landscape)

Data flows (Sequence diagrams, IcePanel Flows)

We've dabbled in it, but it's been mostly exploratory

It's used in some aspects of our workflow/tooling

It's become a core part of our workflow/tooling

Answering questions about our architecture

Reverse-engineering existing systems from code