Find Out What Else Influences the Architecture

In addition to ASRs, there is a slew of other factors that will affect the architecture both directly and indirectly. Here is a list of some of the factors that might influence the architecture:

Your skills and experience as an architect determine how you approach design and the architecture options available to you. Your knowledge and your team’s knowledge of technology defines your design vocabulary. If all you know is Ruby on Rails, then the chances are good you’ll find some way to wedge it into the architecture. When all you have is a hammer, you will find plenty of nails to hit.

Architecture always seems to follow hot technology trends. As new hardware, software, and design paradigms emerge, some will permanently alter the software engineering landscape. Others might just be marketing veneer on old ideas. There’s a good chance your architecture is already proudly sporting the design equivalent of a mullet hairstyle.

Learn to Live with Conway’s Law

How your team is organized and prefers to collaborate influences the architecture design. Conway’s Law, coined by Melvin Conway in 1967 and popularized by Fred Brooks in the Mythical Man Month [Bro95], describes the relationship between team organization and architecture.

…organizations which design systems…are constrained to produce designs which are copies of the communication structures of these organizations.

If you have three teams, you’ll end up with three components. Communication boundaries among people manifest as element boundaries in the architecture. Conway’s Law works both ways. Communication paths designed into the architecture will also influence how you organize your teams. If you want to design the best software possible, then you must be prepared to reorganize your team.

Other influencers are usually only recorded as part of the rationale for design decisions. So many things can influence the architecture that it is practically impossible to document all the potential influencers prior to making design decisions.