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The C4 model for visualising software architecture

Simon Brown

A guide to visualising your software architecture with the C4 model.

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About

About

About the Book

This book focusses on the visual communication of software architecture, based upon a collection of ideas and techniques that thousands of people across the world have found useful - the C4 model for visualising software architecture.

This book will be retired at the end of 2025, with a new version published via O'Reilly in 2026.

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Author

About the Author

Simon Brown

Simon is an independent software development consultant specializing in software architecture; specifically technical leadership, communication, and lightweight, pragmatic approaches to software architecture. Simon is the author of "Software Architecture for Developers", a developer-friendly guide to software architecture, technical leadership, the balance with agility and communicating software architecture with sketches, diagrams, and models. He is also the creator of the C4 model and the founder of Structurizr, a collection of tooling to help teams visualise, document and explore their software architecture.

Leanpub Podcast

Episode 236

An Interview with Simon Brown

Contents

Table of Contents

1.About the book

2.About the author

3.We have a failure to communicate

  1. 3.1What happened to SSADM, RUP, UML, etc?
  2. 3.2A lightweight approach
  3. 3.3Draw one or more diagrams
  4. 3.4Where do we start?
  5. 3.5Some examples
  6. 3.6Common problems
  7. 3.7The hidden assumptions of diagrams

4.A shared vocabulary

  1. 4.1Common abstractions over a common notation
  2. 4.2Static structure
  3. 4.3Components vs code?
  4. 4.4Modules and subsystems?
  5. 4.5Microservices?
  6. 4.6Serverless?
  7. 4.7Platforms, frameworks, and libraries?

5.The C4 model

  1. 5.1Hierarchical maps of your code

6.System context diagram

  1. 6.1Intent
  2. 6.2Content
  3. 6.3Motivation
  4. 6.4Audience
  5. 6.5Recommended?
  6. 6.6Example

7.Container diagram

  1. 7.1Intent
  2. 7.2Content
  3. 7.3Motivation
  4. 7.4Audience
  5. 7.5Recommended?
  6. 7.6Example

8.Component diagram

  1. 8.1Intent
  2. 8.2Structure
  3. 8.3Content
  4. 8.4Motivation
  5. 8.5Audience
  6. 8.6Recommended?
  7. 8.7Example

9.Code diagram

  1. 9.1Intent
  2. 9.2Content
  3. 9.3Motivation
  4. 9.4Audience
  5. 9.5Recommended?
  6. 9.6Example

10.Dynamic diagram

  1. 10.1Intent
  2. 10.2Content
  3. 10.3Motivation
  4. 10.4Audience
  5. 10.5Recommended?
  6. 10.6Example

11.Deployment diagram

  1. 11.1Intent
  2. 11.2Content
  3. 11.3Motivation
  4. 11.4Audience
  5. 11.5Recommended?
  6. 11.6Example

12.System landscape diagram

  1. 12.1Intent
  2. 12.2Content
  3. 12.3Motivation
  4. 12.4Audience
  5. 12.5Recommended?
  6. 12.6Example

13.Notation

  1. 13.1Titles
  2. 13.2Keys and legends
  3. 13.3Elements
  4. 13.4Relationships
  5. 13.5Layout
  6. 13.6Acronyms
  7. 13.7Listen for questions

14.Summary

15.Appendix A: Software architecture diagram review checklist

  1. 15.1General
  2. 15.2Elements
  3. 15.3Relationships

16.Appendix B: Financial Risk System

  1. 16.1Background
  2. 16.2Functional Requirements
  3. 16.3Non-functional Requirements

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