The C4 Model

Chapter 12. C4 Model in Practice

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This final chapter takes a look at how the C4 model works in practice, based upon my experience of teaching it to engineering teams. I’ve had the privilege of visiting hundreds of organizations over the past 15 years, spanning almost every industry sector, in over 40 countries, from startups and small country-specific businesses to scaleups and global household names. The C4 model is also being taught at many universities around the world, and I’ve presented guest lectures to students. I’ve been asked a lot of questions over this time! I wouldn’t necessarily say that I have answers to all of them, but I do have answers to the most frequently asked questions that I hear on my travels, and that’s exactly what this chapter is about.

A Silver Bullet?

I already mentioned in Chapter 2 that the C4 model is not universally applicable. It’s more suited to engineering teams building typical enterprise software rather than embedded software or solutions that are based upon customizing existing platforms. But, even if you are building ...