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Boxes and Arrows: Defining Information Architecture Deliverables
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4. Task Analysis
From the scenario, you can move toward a task analysis. This is a discrete step-by-step analysis of how users accomplish their desired tasks. This allows the IA to carefully analyze each step a user needs to complete any give task.
My favorite example has always been one Peter Merholz put together: Imagine Wily Coyote trying to buy an anvil for one of his nefarious schemes from the web:
(A.)Buy An Anvil
(1.)Find The Anvil
(a.)Search For Anvil
(i.)Type in "anvil" in Search box
(ii.)Read results
(b.)Browse the Store
(2.)View anvil
(B.)Purchase The Anvil
Of course a real task analysis would be quite more detailed and complex, but the essential idea is here.
Used by: IA's
5. Site Map
This is the IA's workhorse, the one thing we all do when building a website. Jesse James Garrett has undertaken the Herculean task of creating a standardized language for site maps; unfortunately most IA's still use the systems they developed early on when IA's weren't talking to each other. A site map can be small and simple, or can take up a hundred pages or be printed out on a plotter 6 foot wide. It all depends on the site and the needs of the project. The map documents the various pages or page types throughout the site and the user paths to and from them. It is typically started early in the project, and refined throughout.
from Jesse James Garrett's Visual Vocabulary
Used by: Engineering, design, project managers, content.
6. Page Architecture
Also called wireframes or schematics, these are probably the most controversial of the IA's deliverables. Too precise wireframes, and visual designers feel dictated to, too loose and the architecture can be misinterpreted.
- Wireframe
One agency has solved this by having the visual designers create the wireframes, other companies make their page architectures look more like flow charts, eliminating design from them entirely. No matter how you decide to represent them they must show:
- Items on page
- Importance of each item on page
- Behavior of each item on page
Another type of page architecture - 
Used by: Design primarily, sometimes engineering for early prototyping.
7. Decision tables
The tables allow precise documentation of the design of every interaction possible. It is especially useful when designing error handling. Often errors are ignored by design, and when engineering codes the product, they have to make up error messages. This can result in messages like "error in dll 5034. click okay to continue" Not a happy user experience.
Used By: Engineering, customer service
Again, this is not a complete list of every possible tool an IA may use but these are among the most common. Every project is unique, and the role each IA plays within the company is also unique. However, the IA's job is to define the structure and behavior of the systems as it is perceived by the user, and these seven deliverables are an excellent way to make sure the IA's thinking is clear and clearly communicated.