> The most common failure mode for sequence diagrams is over-complication. (This also is the failure mode for most diagrams, as I wrote in an article on flow charts).
Agreed.
UML – with the goal of being a graphical language for _complete_ specification of a system (both for code generation as well as to have diagrams generated from code introspection) – has to be exhaustive, therefore fails at showing the big picture.
Use of UML that could accommodate multiple levels of abstraction would fix that. I believe this is what C4 [1] tries to achieve with 4 levels of diagram. Unfortunately everybody who invents a new diagram model also reinvents the wheel and throws the entire UML away. One could easily use UML visual language, but just standardise on using the 4 levels diagrams of C4.
> The most common failure mode for sequence diagrams is over-complication. (This also is the failure mode for most diagrams, as I wrote in an article on flow charts).
Agreed.
UML – with the goal of being a graphical language for _complete_ specification of a system (both for code generation as well as to have diagrams generated from code introspection) – has to be exhaustive, therefore fails at showing the big picture.
Use of UML that could accommodate multiple levels of abstraction would fix that. I believe this is what C4 [1] tries to achieve with 4 levels of diagram. Unfortunately everybody who invents a new diagram model also reinvents the wheel and throws the entire UML away. One could easily use UML visual language, but just standardise on using the 4 levels diagrams of C4.
[1] https://c4model.com