What are some techniques for diagraming architectures?

Question

I am working with someone new. They started diagraming in a way that I had not seen before, and I had a hard time following along. They mentioned that it was called a logical architecture diagram. This lead me to wonder which are some of the most popular approaches to diagraming software architecture, and when is each approach a good fit?

Answer 1

I would recommend taking a look at Simon Brown's C4 style. It's simple, very effective and promotes good collaboration through sketches drawn by the team on a white board where everyone can contribute and challenge the ideas.

For me this is the agile approach for making good architecture in a contrast with the "ivory tower" architects that simply draw big and hard to understand diagrams and throw them to the development teams.

There is even a whole book, called "Software Architecture for Developers", describing the good agile practices for designing agile architectures.

Disclaimer:

I'm biased because I've read the book, liked it very much and found the ideas to work well in practice.