Martin Fowler's Blog, page 2
December 15, 2021
How the advice process works in practice
Andrew finishes his article on how to scale software architecture by looking at how this technique works in practice, and also outlines how things can go wrong.
December 14, 2021
Treat integration as strategic to your business
Brandon finishes his article on how we should look at integration by arguing that it is a strategic element of an enterprise's infrastructure. You can buy the best products in the world but "none of it will make you competitive in a digital world if you continue to treat integration as a tactical nuisance to overcome so you take advantage of those new systems."
December 13, 2021
A tech landscape and current climate sensing tool - Your own Tech Radar
Andrew's fourth supporting element for the Advice Process is using a tech radar to capture and map out your local version of the technology trends you see across your organization.
December 9, 2021
Team-sourced Architectural Principles
Having architectural principles is not new, but in a world of highly-autonomous-teams they become essential because they are the means by which an aligned delivery direction is achieved without the need for control. In the latest installment, Andrew talks about what makes a good principle, and how they work with the Advice Process.
Use commercial integration tools to simplify implementation concerns
Thus far, Brandon has has explained why general purpose languages are better for integration. In this latest installment he explains that there are cases when commercial integration tools make sense
December 8, 2021
A time and place for conversations: The Architecture Advisory Forum
The Architecture Advisory Forum is a regular and recurring place and time for conversations. It's a weekly, hour-long, open invite meeting used to gather advice and share information across a broad group.
December 7, 2021
Use a general purpose language to manage the interface evolution
Many commercial integration tools market their ability to own the integration landscape and call out to general purpose languages as needed. While I can appreciate the marketing behind such messaging — it promotes product penetration and lock-in — as architectural guidance, it is exactly backwards. Instead, we should almost always manage the interface evolution in a general purpose language for at least two reasons: so we can better manage the complexity of maintaining a clean interface, and so that we avoid the gravitational pull of our tool's mental model when making strategic integration decisions.
December 1, 2021
A thinking and recording tool: Decision Records
The Advice Process works when supported by four elements. Andrew describes the first of these, Decision Records, which act as a tool for thinking about and recording the decision process.
Put most of your energy into building clean interfaces
While we have historically drawn up our project plans and costs around the boxes—the digital products we are introducing—the lines are the hidden and often primary driver of organizational tech debt. They are the reason that things just take longer now than they used to.
November 30, 2021
You Can't Buy Integration
“Build versus buy” decisions are everywhere today, and rightly so. Building software is risky and expensive, and software product companies can spread that risk and expense across multiple customers. But my colleague Brandon Byars argues that the kinds of tools that are available to buy for systems integration are not products that directly solve a business problem.
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