- Simon Brown’s SA4D/C4 model.
You find a brief introduction in one of his blog posts
- You find several links comparing C4 and arc42 in question B17
- The View-Model of Paul Clements et. al from the Software Engineering Institute. From our point of view, their approach is very heavyweight and can become quite formal when applied to real-world projects.
- In case your organization has created its own “Software Architecture Documentation Template”: It should contain quality requirements, a scope/context section and information about building blocks and crosscutting concepts. If it does, you’re pretty close to arc42 anyway…
Prefer to learn arc42 hands-on?
Practical architecture training, most classes taught by Peter Hruschka and Gernot Starke — the people who created arc42 and maintain this FAQ (dates with other trainers say so) — and solid preparation for iSAQB certifications.
Next dates
- 15–17 Sep 2026 DE Req4Arc · Frankfurt/Maingetting your requirements right
- 29 Sep–1 Oct 2026 EN Mastering SW Architectures · onlineperfect preparation for iSAQB CPSA-Foundation certification · with Wolfgang Reimesch
- 27–28 Oct 2026 DE ADOC · Züricharchitecture documentation · with Gernot Starke
- 24–26 Nov 2026 DE IMPROVE · Hamburgevolve and maintain systems · with Carola Lilienthal & Gernot Starke
- 1–4 Dec 2026 DE Mastering SW Architectures · Münchenperfect preparation for iSAQB CPSA-Foundation certification
- 2–5 Mar 2027 DE Mastering SW Architectures · Münchenperfect preparation for iSAQB CPSA-Foundation certification
- 9–11 Mar 2027 DE Req4Arc · Münchengetting your requirements right
- 2–3 Jun 2027 DE ADOC · Mannheim oder Frankfurt (t.b.d.)architecture documentation
All courses and dates: trainings.arc42.org · as of 4 Aug 2026