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More common mistakes to avoid when creating system architecture diagrams

https://www.ilograph.com/blog/posts/more-common-diagram-mistakes/
33•billyp-rva•2h ago

Comments

ashwinnair99•1h ago
The worst ones are diagrams that look clean but hide all the decisions that actually matter. A messy diagram that shows the real tradeoffs is more useful than a pretty one that lies
chaps•1h ago
Once worked with a systems architect who intentionally disorganized their flow diagrams by just moving nodes in their flow to random places (hi Dan!). The only reason I can think of why he'd do that is to maintain job security by keeping the junior apps folk confused.
01HNNWZ0MV43FF•10m ago
The Slack notification flowchart is an old favorite: https://slack.engineering/reducing-slacks-memory-footprint/
zabzonk•1h ago
Couple of comments:

> This can be as simple as adding a type suffix to a resource name (e.g. Orders Table, Results Bucket)

Don't encode types in names. And I disagree somewhat that the names are really needed at all.

> Making a “master” diagram

I think such a diagram is useful but obviously each top-level "box" in it doesn't need to contain all sub-components.

gruez•1h ago
>Don't encode types in names.

Why? Hungarian notation probably is probably going too far, but in cases where a single word is heavily overloaded encoding types is helpful (eg. image file, image table, image bucket).

zabzonk•49m ago
I don't think the type needs to be in the name because it is displayed elsewhere in the diagram, possibly as the object's icon. Plus of course the reasons no-one uses Hungarian anymore - types change.

And for your naming, I would probably have something like "Unnormalized orders", "normalised orders", "queued orders", but obviously I can't tell without much more information.

tremon•33m ago
And I disagree somewhat that the names are really needed at all

You want a diagram containing only icons? You will still need a legend somewhere that explains what each icon means, otherwise you will end up with at least as many interpretations of the diagram as there are readers of it.

And I'd say that that first image as shown is virtually useless anyway. There is little value in just laying out resource components without linking them to system operation in some way -- which means that that diagram can only be understood in its larger context, and that's typically not how diagrams are used: they end up being the main focus of discussions.

datadrivenangel•1h ago
Diagrams are communication tools, and are best done with a target and goal in mind. The C4 framework is good for addressing multiple levels of abstraction and different types of viewers. The business execs don't need the level of detail that someone debugging the system does.
orthoxerox•54m ago
The most common mistake I've seen is not agreeing on what arrows represent: control or data. Does A-(customer data)->B mean A asks B for data or A sends customer data to B?

Of course, sequence diagrams make it clear with two separate arrows when control and data flow in different directions, but a lot of diagrams are of the "plain old boxes and arrows" variety.

zabzonk•45m ago
In high-level diagrams, which I think is what is being discussed here, I like to think that A --> B means that A "uses" B in some way, and leave it at that.
segmondy•35m ago
yup, A interacts with B with the interaction originating from A.
kingforaday•53m ago
Their master diagram example in #3 contains a #2 mistake with an unconnected resource (the stripe account). Maybe a double validation of why the master diagrams can be hard to maintain.
dawnerd•33m ago
This is just an advertisement for their service.

In my 20 years in this field I can easily count on one hand the times a diagram like this has been useful. I’ve seen more cases where they were clearly created to satisfy some exec that wanted to see it and never updated again.

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More common mistakes to avoid when creating system architecture diagrams

https://www.ilograph.com/blog/posts/more-common-diagram-mistakes/
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