Demystifying Software Architecture

Thoughtful Software Podcast

In this episode, Andrew and Fahad demystify software architecture, discussing what defines architecture, how to make it less complicated, what the real goals of architecture should be, why patterns and technical debt are important, and how company execs can use this knowledge to empower their business.
Show Notes

• Software systems are becoming increasingly sophisticated and complex and business expectations are driving that complexity.
• Go back to first principles
  • Earn Your Complexity
  • Abstract for that which changes. You can know what changes if you study and understand your industry.
  • Think of the problem before the solution and patterns will naturally be revealed.
• Architecture is business enablement which helps you to understand your product, its implementation, and its real world consequences.
• Technical debt is a vehicle for growth and not having it means that you are stagnant and not investing in anything toward the future. Leverage your technical debt by looking forward and understanding your product roadmap.
• Software is constantly evolving and you should be constantly leveraging technical debt to enable the business in the future.
• There are no "best patterns' to use as you accumulate and use technical debt. Patterns are tools and as a hammer has a specific job, so does a pattern.
• The goal is to refactor and pattern toward the simplest possible system.
• You can often abstract away compliance. Architects have to know about the product as well as how to be legal and compliant.
• Can CFOs, CTOs, and CEOs identify things that can help them with this or should they simply just truth the technical people? The best architects are going to help executives understand the decisions being made and why they are making them.
• Ownership requires a lack of ignorance in the entire process. It is all about connecting with people and trying to help people.

People and Resources Mentioned

• Slack
• Martin Fowler
• Django
• JavaScript
• AWS

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