c4-notation VS diataxis-documentation-framework

Second this.

Reference for anyone looking I to it: https://c4model.com/

There is also quite a lot of options for helping create these diagrams. I've found https://structurizr.com/ to be the best of what I've tried so far.

What you are describing sounds a lot like C4: https://c4model.com/

The C4 model [0] provides a mostly sensible structure and techniques for representing pure software systems across different abstraction levels.

For systems involving software and hardware, or other complex interfacing (both technology and bureaucracy) this starts to delve into the universe of systems engineering. There's a decent assembly of knowledge on that in the SEBoK [1].

As another commenter has already called out too, one of the most valuable sources of information is also _why_ a system is in its current form and _how_ that's changed over time. ADR's [2] really do a good job at nailing this for just about any scale.

[0]: https://c4model.com

[1]: https://sebokwiki.org

[2]: https://adr.github.io

There a various standards for documenting software architecture, like arc42 or C4. While useful and somewhat well-known (there is certainly a correlation here), here architecture documentation can be further simplified, particularly due to the self-similarity of project and component. Following is a small template, that can also serve as a project's and component's README:

I would suggest that if your architecture diagrams are a bunch of icons provided by AWS/Azure/GCP with lines pointing at each other... you are doing it wrong.

The 'what does this box do for my system' is vastly more important than the 'which in vogue offering from my cloud provider implements it'.

I highly suggest folks take a look at the C4 Model: https://c4model.com/

We often use abstractions in software engineering to communicate complex architectures and software systems. In this article, we’ll discuss how abstractions are inherently hierarchical and how the C4 model provides a nested structure for defining your software architecture. We’ll then cover how IcePanel allows you to create interactive and zoomable diagrams for your audience to zoom in and out of different levels of technical detail.

You probably want https://c4model.com/ which explains what a C4 architecture diagram is. (See the first footnote in the article.)

Perhaps it could be restructured to separate out the howto from the explanation to serve the reader’s intended use at the time as described here: https://diataxis.fr

Create an organized repository for regularly updated documentation, making it easy to access important information.

Such integration capabilities really help push the developer productivity, whether that's in single-project workspaces or monorepos. Juri also dives deeper into efforts from the team to provide high quality educational content around Nx and its capabilities. The Nx docs have been restructured to follow the Diataxisframework, dividing content into into learning-, task-, understanding- and information-oriented sections.

I think people may be missing the core point of this article.

Anton has built a new thing, https://codapi.org/ - which provides a web component that makes it easy to embed interactive code snippets for HTTP APIs, Python code and more directly in pages of documentation.

This article demonstrates this new technology in the context of the https://diataxis.fr/ documentation framework, which recommends going beyond just straight API reference documentation and ensuring you cover tutorials, how-to guides and explanations as well.

I think this is really cool.

As much as possible on all facets, because that is what "documentation" means, and if you are a product manager who wasn't paying attention in product management 101 and need some guidance on what "documentation" is, try reading this first.

Related: Diátaxis - A systematic framework for technical documentation authoring [1]

"The Diátaxis framework aims to solve the problem of structure in technical documentation. It adopts a systematic approach to understanding the needs of documentation users in their cycle of interaction with a product.

Diátaxis identifies four modes of documentation - tutorials, how-to guides, technical reference and explanation. It derives its structure from the relationship between them.(...)"

[1] https://diataxis.fr/

the divio style docs concept got further refined by the creator with this - https://diataxis.fr/

mostly the same but some additional information for people who are interested