Let us revise the C4-model for software architecture diagrams
The C4-model is getting traction as an industry standard for software architecture diagrams. Although the C4-model is a great starting point, the model can and should be improved to gain popularity. In this article I propose the following:
It is my hope that refinements of the model such as these presented here can help the industry reach consensus and standardisation in the area of software architecture diagrams.
The C4-model for software architecture — published by the author Simon Brown more than 10 years ago— has done a great job in the field of software architecture diagramming. It has helped me on many recent projects to more clearly communicate software architecture and design.
However, I have found room for improvement and so I have evolved it further to fit my needs on various large-scale projects. In this article I will propose an improvement of the C4-model.
The structure of the article is simple: (i) state what really works well for the C4-model, then (ii) analyse the pain points and explain how a revised C4-model can fix the pain points.
