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Design structure matrix templates

DSM — Retail Recommender Platform

Component DSM of a retailer's recommendation stack showing why an online learning system cannot be fully sequenced: serving, metrics, drift, retraining and the model registry close a loop that absorbs 10 of the 14 components into a single iteration block, leaving only event collection, identity resolution, the feature store and experiment assignment cleanly upstream.

Template previewDesign structure matrix
Retail recommender — component couplingComponent DSM · IR/FAD — read across a row for that element's inputs; marks above the diagonal are feedback.As declared333223233322233222222332322Event collector1Identity resolution2Feature store3Catalogue embeddings4Candidate generator5Ranking model6Business rules layer7Guardrail filter8Serving API9Experiment assignment10Metrics warehouse11Retraining job12Model registry13Drift monitor14Event collectorIdentity resolutionFeature storeCatalogue embeddingsCandidate generatorRanking modelBusiness rules layerGuardrail filterServing APIExperiment assignmentMetrics warehouseRetraining jobModel registryDrift monitorPartitioned sequence3332232333222332222223323221Event collector1Identity resolution2Feature store3Experiment assignment4Catalogue embeddings5Candidate generator6Ranking model7Business rules layer8Guardrail filter9Serving API10Metrics warehouse11Drift monitor12Retraining job13Model registry14Event collectorIdentity resolutionFeature storeExperiment assignmentCatalogue embeddingsCandidate generatorRanking modelBusiness rules layerGuardrail filterServing APIMetrics warehouseDrift monitorRetraining jobModel registryinout03122512232232212141322231225 feedback marks reduced to 2 across 1 iteration block.14 components · 29 dependency marks · density 16% · 4 sequenced stages · largest block 10Sequence runs top-left to bottom-right; 2 remaining feedback marks sit inside the boxed blocks.Highest fan-out: Feature store (feeds 5) · highest fan-in: Serving API (needs 4)Block 1 · positions 5–14 · Catalogue embeddings, Candidate generator, Ranking model, Business rules layer, Guardrail filte…dependencystrength 3feedback (rework)iteration blockdiagonal (self)

Make it your own.

title "Retail recommender — component coupling"
mode component
convention ir-fad

components: Event collector, Identity resolution, Feature store, Catalogue embeddings
components: Candidate generator, Ranking model, Business rules layer, Guardrail filter
components: Serving API, Experiment assignment, Metrics warehouse, Retraining job
components: Model registry, Drift monitor

Identity resolution   <- Event collector(3)
Feature store         <- Event collector(3), Identity resolution(3)
Catalogue embeddings  <- Feature store(2), Model registry(2)
Candidate generator   <- Catalogue embeddings(3), Feature store(2)
Ranking model         <- Feature store(3), Candidate generator(3), Model registry(3)
Business rules layer  <- Ranking model(2), Catalogue embeddings
Guardrail filter      <- Business rules layer(2), Catalogue embeddings(2)
Serving API           <- Ranking model(3), Guardrail filter(3), Candidate generator(2), Experiment assignment(2)
Experiment assignment <- Identity resolution(2)
Metrics warehouse     <- Event collector(2), Serving API(2), Experiment assignment(2)
Retraining job        <- Metrics warehouse(3), Feature store(3), Drift monitor(2)
Model registry        <- Retraining job(3), Drift monitor
Drift monitor         <- Metrics warehouse(2), Feature store(2)