Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems

by Sam Newman

The comparison with software should be obvious. As our users use our software, we need to react and change. We cannot foresee everything that will happen, and so rather than plan for any eventuality, we should plan to allow for change by avoiding the urge to overspecify every last thing. Our city — the system — needs to be a good, happy place for everyone who uses it. One thing that people often forget is that our system doesn’t just accommodate users; it also accommodates developers and operations people who also have to work there, and who have the job of making sure it can change as required. To borrow a term from Frank Buschmann, architects have a duty to ensure that the system is habitable for developers too. A town planner, just like an architect, also needs to know when his plan isn’t being followed. As he is less prescriptive, the number of times he needs to get involved to correct direction should be minimal, but if someone decides to build a sewage plant in a residential area, he needs to be able to shut it down. So our architects as town planners need to set direction in broad strokes, and only get involved in being highly specific about implementation detail in limited cases. They need to ensure that the system is fit for purpose now, but also a platform for the future. And they need to ensure that it is a system that makes users and developers equally happy.

Role of software architects