Build Amazing Software

There are lots of things that have to go right when building a software system. Architecture connects them all together and provides a foundation for success. Here are six ways software architecture helps you in your quest to build spectacular software that your stakeholders will love:

1. Software architecture turns a big problem into smaller, more manageable problems.

Modern software systems are large and complex, and they have many moving pieces. The architecture precisely explains how to partition the system into smaller, bite-sized chunks while also ensuring the system as a whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

2. Software architecture shows people how to work together.

Software development is as much about human communication as it is technology. Software architecture describes how the whole system comes together, including the people who build it. When you know the architecture, then you can see how people can collaborate to develop software. The larger the software system, the more important this becomes.

3. Software architecture provides a vocabulary for talking about complex ideas.

If I don’t understand what you’re talking about, then we won’t be able to collaborate. Instead of spending all our time inventing vocabulary and concepts, we can use the essential concepts and core vocabulary of architecture as the starting basis for collaboration. Now we can spend our time solving our users’ real problems.

4. Software architecture looks beyond features and functionality.

Features and functionality are important, but they are not the only thing that determines whether or not software is awesome. When designing architecture, you’ll consider not only the features but also costs, constraints, schedules, risk, the ability of the team to deliver, and most importantly quality attributes—things like scalability, availability, performance, and maintainability.

5. Software architecture helps you avoid costly mistakes.

In Who Needs an Architect? [Fow03], Martin Fowler defines software architecture as “…the important stuff. Whatever that is.” The important stuff is nearly always what we think will be difficult to change without significantly increasing complexity. Grady Booch echoes Fowler’s sentiment by defining architecture as the “…significant design decisions (where significant is measured by the cost of change).”^[2] Software architects are not omniscient, but designing an architecture will help you discover the challenging (and interesting) parts of the problem that might cause big trouble later.

6. Software architecture enables agility.

Your software should respond to change like water, by bending around obstacles with ease. If software is like water, able to take any shape, then software architecture is the container that holds it. That container can be rigid like a box or flexible like a plastic bag. It can be thick and heavy or lightweight. Without an architecture, software, like water, follows the path of least resistance and sprawls uncontrollably. A software system’s architecture provides the structure within which change is possible.

We’ll expand on these ideas throughout the remainder of the book.