Architecture diagram templates

[lorenyu]

It takes a lot of time to create architecture diagrams on a project. It would be beneficial to have templates for the common architecture patterns, especially ones that use the infra template's default system design.

The templates could probably just live in LucidChart for now.

Once the template's are created it would be good to have some documentation in template-infra about the templates.

[yoomlam]

No one asked me but I prefer using a markup language to draw diagrams, esp. those that change or can become complex.
GitHub supports Mermaid ML (https://github.blog/2022-02-14-include-diagrams-markdown-files-mermaid/), so I've been using it in wiki pages:

• https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/abd-vro/wiki/VRO-Architecture-Diagram
• https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/abd-vro/wiki/%28March-2022%29-Plan-to-Deploy-to-LHDI
• https://github.com/department-of-veterans-affairs/abd-vro/wiki/VRO-v2-Roadmap

With the help of https://mermaid.live, folks can click on the diagram, modify it using Mermaid, and paste the new (encoded) image back into the wiki page -- detailed instructions.

There's a thread about LucidChart and Mermaid (and Draw.io): https://lucidchart.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/4406856682644-Mermaid-Support

[lorenyu]

@yoomlam those are pretty good diagrams, i'm impressed. i'm open to considering that. i guess by default i find mermaid diagrams less expressive at times - for example i find the ability to use aws icons to represent aws services to be pretty nice both visually and for communicating the information quickly at a glance of what it is.

[acouch]

We have a mermaid diagram that is pretty close to the templates combined out of the box: https://github.com/HHS/grants-equity/tree/main/documentation/architecture#betagrantsgov-architecture