Preface
When two of your authors Neal and Mark were writing the book Fundamentals of Software Architecture, we kept coming across complex examples in architecture that we wanted to cover but they were too difficult—each one offered no easy solutions but rather a collection of messy tradeoffs. We set those examples aside into a pile we called “The Hard Parts”. Once that book was done, we looked at the now gigantic pile of hard parts and tried to figure out: why are these problems so difficult to solve in modern architectures?
We took the all the examples and worked through them like architects, applying trade-off analysis for each situation, but also paying attention to the process we used to arrive at the tradeoffs. One of our early revelations was the increasing importance of data in architecture decisions: who can/should access data, who can/should write to it, and how to manage the separation of analytical and operational data. So, to that end, we asked experts in those fields to join us, which allows this book to fully incorporate decision making from both angles: architecture to data and data to architecture.
The result is this book: a collection of difficult problems in modern software architecture, what trade-offs make the decisions hard, and ultimately an illustrated guide to show the readers how to apply the same trade-off analysis to their own unique problems.
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Acknowledgments
Mark and Neal would like to thank all the people who attended our (almost exclusively online) classes, workshops, conference sessions, user group meetings, as well as all the other people who listened to versions of this material and provided invaluable feedback. Iterating on new material is especially tough when we can’t do it live, so we appreciate those who commented on the many iterations. We would also like to thank the publishing team at O’Reilly, who made this as painless an experience as writing a book can be. We would also like to thank a few random oases of sanity-preserving and idea-sparking groups that have names like Pasty Geeks and the Hacker B&B.
We would also like to thank those who did the technical review of our book—Vanya Seth, Venkat Subramanian, Joost van Weenen, Grady Booch, Ruben Diaz, David Kloet, Matt Stein, Danilo Sato, James Lewis, and Sam Newman. Your valuable insights and feedback helped validate our technical content and make this a better book.
We would especially like to acknowledge the many workers and families impacted by the unexpected global pandemic. As knowledge workers, we faced inconveniences that pale in comparison to the massive disruption and devastation wrought on so many of our friends and colleagues across all walks of life. Our sympathies and appreciation especially go out to health care workers, many of which never expected to be on the front line of a terrible global tragedy yet handled it nobly. Our collected thanks can never be adequately expressed.
Acknowledgments from Mark Richards
In addition to the preceding acknowledgments, I would like to once again thank my lovely wife, Rebecca, for putting up with me through yet-another book project. Your unending support and advice helped make this book happen, even when it meant taking time away from working on your own novel. You mean the world to me Rebecca. I would also like to thank my good friend and co-author Neal Ford. Collaborating with you on the materials for this book (as well as our last one) was truly a valuable and rewarding experience. You are, and always will be, my friend.
Acknowledgments from Neal Ford
Neal would like to thank his extended family, Thoughtworks as a collective, and Rebecca Parsons and Martin Fowler as individual parts of it. Thoughtworks is an extraordinary group who manage to produce value for customers while keeping a keen eye toward why things work so that that we can improve them. Thoughtworks supported this book in many myriad ways and continues to grow Thoughtworkers who challenge and inspire me every day. Neal would also like to thank our neighborhood cocktail club for a regular escape from routine, including the weekly outside, socially distanced versions that helped us all survive the odd time we just lived through. Lastly, Neal would like to thank his wife, Candy, who continues to support this lifestyle which has me staring at things like book writing rather than her and our cats too much.
Acknowledgments from Pramod Sadalage
Pramod would like to thank his wife Rupali for all the support and understanding, his lovely girls Arula and Arhana for the encouragement; daddy loves you both. All the work I do would not have been possible without the clients I work with and various conferences that have helped me iterate on the concepts and content. Pramod would like to thank AvidXchange, the latest client he is working at, for their support and providing great space to iterate on new concepts. Pramod would also like to thank Thoughtworks for its continued support in my life, Neal Ford, Rebecca Parsons, and Martin Fowler for being amazing mentors; you all make me a better person. Lastly, Pramod would like to thank his parents, especially his mother Shobha, and he misses her every day I miss you, MOM.
Acknowledgments from Zhamak
I would like to thank Mark and Neal for their open invitation to have me contribute to this amazing body of work. My contribution to this book would not have been possible without the continuous support of my husband, Adrian, and patience of my daughter, Arianna. I love you both.