🏁Getting started

Create your first IcePanel diagram and model

The basics

IcePanel is an interactive modelling and diagramming tool that uses the C4 model to help you communicate your team's system architectures in a structured way. It helps explain how things work to your audiences through an abstraction-first approach, overlaying details when needed.

With the C4 Model, you can drill down or zoom in and out of different levels of detail, depending on the audience you're communicating your designs to. In most software teams, this is a mix of technical (developers, architects, operations, etc.) and non-technical people (product, business stakeholders, etc.).

Using modelling instead of diagramming alone removes much of the maintenance headache of keeping multiple diagrams up-to-date, as changes sync automatically through all your diagrams.

Quick start guide

Getting started in IcePanel is simple. Here is a quick example to follow so you can have robust system documentation that will help you educate, learn, make decisions and plan future developments (which also look pretty cool 😎).

Step 1: Create your first context view

Add Actors, Systems, and Connections

1. Create a landscape (if you haven't already)
2. Add the top-level objects for your design, such as:

   • The system(s) your company develops (start with 1)

   • Third-party systems you depend on

   • People who use your solution, such as customers

3. Add connections between the different objects, highlighting their high-level relationships.

Adding and editing objects in diagrams automatically adds them to your model to be re-used later.

🤔 What this is for

This is the context level (Level 1) of the C4 model, and the focus here is the big-picture view of your system architecture. This will mainly show how your system(s) solve your customer's problems, remaining primarily at the business level, so keep it simple!

👥 Target audience

Everyone! Anyone in or out of your company who needs a high-level overview of how your system(s) work. Perfect for your business, product, or other non-technical peers, as well as onboarding new technical teammates.

📋 Make sure to

1. Name your objects in a way anyone can understand.

2. Label all connections so the relationships are clear.

Step 2: Zoom into a system and add your apps/stores

Zoom-in and add Apps and Stores

1. Zoom into a System (using the +🔍 icon on the top left of the system).

2. Add the Apps and Stores that are inside the primary system.

3. Connect them to show messages or relationships between them.

🤔 What this is for

This is the App level (Level 2 - known as Container diagram in C4). It shows the individually deployed/runnable units in each System that execute or store code.

👥 Target audience

Mainly technical people, such as architects and developers. Some product people (such as product owners, product managers, or business analysts) will gain value here, especially for planning purposes.

📋 Make sure to

1. Name your objects in a way anyone can understand.

2. Label all connections so the relationships are clear.

Step 3: Add existing objects from the level above

Add objects from the level above

Because we're using a model, we can add objects from higher levels here, such as other systems you depend on or the people interacting with your solution.

1. Add your Actors and Systems from the level above by either:

   1. Double-clicking in the diagram and typing their name.

   2. Going to the "Model objects" tool on the left and drag them in.

2. Add the connections to the apps/stores inside the system from previously created connections.

You can create multiple diagrams to show different views of your model. Examples include customer-specific views, focusing on one object, and current vs. future design.

Connections that were created at a higher level will show as higher connections.

Step 4: Assign tech choices

Assign tech choices to your objects

Once you have your Apps and Stores laid out and connected, start adding any tech choices, such as what service in AWS, GCP or Azure service, languages, libraries or frameworks, etc.

1. Select your model object. You can multi-select objects by holding the Shift key.

2. Go to the technology section on the right-hand panel.

3. Search for your tech choice and add it.

These choices come with docs preassigned and a simple description for those unfamiliar. These can be used later to highlight tech choices using the tags bar, allowing people to learn your architecture's technical choice landscape and filter your model.

Step 5: Describe each object and diagram

Add descriptions to your objects

Each object and diagram has a description, which adds details to help your teammates understand how things work. Descriptions follow that object wherever it is and are linked to your Recommendation score.

The minimum you should add is a brief displayed description for each object. This might seem obvious, but it will help your teammates (especially new ones).

1. Select an object.

2. Go to the right-hand panel.

3. Add a displayed description to each object (max 120 characters).

Try to explain:

• What the object is.

• What its primary responsibilities are.

Use the detailed description field to show other useful information, or Linking to reality to highlight parts in your code.

The detailed description field supports Markdown, so you can quickly import your existing documents and formatting manually or through our API.

Step 6: Create your first Flow

Create your first Flow

Your Systems architecture doesn't live in a static world without interactions and data flows, so neither should your diagrams. Flows allow you to show how your system works in multiple scenarios or user journeys on the same view.

1. Click Create flow in the diagram Flows tab at the bottom left of the screen. Name your Flow.

2. Select the object or connection you want to show in your first step.

3. Click + Step on the left.

4. Add an optional description to the step.

5. Keep adding steps to show the rest of the flow.

6. Use the Back and Next buttons to step through your flow when complete.

👉 See flows for more

Step 7: Add and view Tags to show different perspectives

Add tags to your objects

Tags allow you to show multiple perspectives of your diagrams without duplicating them. Use Tag groups to show different information, such as deployment information, the risk, or the cost of your model.

1. Open the Tags bar at the bottom of the screen.

2. Click an object to open the details in the right-hand panel.

3. Click the Add tags button.

4. Add tags that apply to the tag group you want to show.

5. Hover over the tags in the bottom tag bar to highlight them. You can also click on them to pin them or select the hide/focus options.

Tags are a great way to change the focus of your design with little effort and help target specific areas of focus for each of your audiences.

👉 See Tags for more

Step 8: Collaborate with your teammates and Share

Share your diagram

IcePanel is a collaborative tool for your whole team. Getting others involved helps you gain knowledge from across your business. Invite them as viewers (unlimited and free on all IcePanel plans) or create interactive read-only share links of your designs. Share links & embeds are a great way to showcase your designs without them needing an account using just a browser.

Invite your teammates:

1. Click the Share button in the top right of the screen.

2. Type the emails of the people you want to invite to your team.

3. Send invitations.

Create share links:

1. Click the Share button in the top right of the screen.

2. Navigate to the Share link tab.

3. Toggle on share links.

4. Copy and paste the link to anyone you want to show your designs.

Wherever you are when you create a share link will be where your audience lands when opening the URL. This includes position, selected object, Flow, Tags etc.

Step 9: Create your first version

Create a version of your landscape

You can create versions of your landscapes to track changes and use the timeline to visualize how your architecture has evolved.

1. Click the Current drop-down at the top left of the canvas.

2. Click the Create version button.

3. Name your version and add notes (this will help you and others in the future).

4. Click the Create version button to confirm.

5. Select the Current drop-down to view the version timeline.

That's the basics!

Congratulations! You've started your journey into interactive architecture documentation that remains up-to-date and can be accessed by all your teammates!

What next?

Modelling

Diagramming

Linking to reality

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Still need help? Let us know at [e-mail], and we'll respond as soon as we can!