  System architecture diagrams play an essential role in understanding system
architecture. They encourage more active discussion among participants and make
it easier to recall system details. However, system architecture diagrams often
diverge from the software. As a result, they can interfere with the
understanding and maintenance of the software. We propose an approach to build
system architecture diagrams using DevOps system descriptors to improve the
consistency of architecture diagrams. To produce our approach, we survey
problems with architecture diagrams in the software industry, developing
guidelines for creating architecture diagrams. Next, we produce a taxonomy for
system descriptor concepts and a process to convert system descriptors into
architecture diagrams. We evaluate our approach through a case study. In this
case study, we defined a Docker Compose descriptor for a newsfeed system and
transformed it into a system architectural diagram using the proposed approach.
Our results indicate that, currently, system descriptors generally lead to
consistent diagrams only to a limited extent. However, the case study's
observations indicate that the proposed approach is promising and demonstrates
that system descriptors have the potential to create more consistent
architectural diagrams. Further evaluation in controlled and empirical
experiments is necessary to test our hypothesis in more detail.
