Book Overflow Rebecca Parsons Reflects on Building Evolutionary Architectures
Oct 10, 2024
Rebecca Parsons, author of Building Evolutionary Architectures, dives into her extensive experience in software architecture and evolutionary computation. She discusses the transformative impact of tech innovations like personal computers and the internet on her career. The conversation uncovers how genetic algorithms inform architectural decision-making, emphasizing fitness functions for evaluating system performance. Parsons highlights the shift from skepticism to acceptance of evolving architectures, advocating for clear communication and adaptability in tech strategies.
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Abstractions Leak
- Abstractions are useful, but they don't represent everything.
- Software engineers must understand what's important for their system's success.
Evaluate Trade-offs
- Understand the consequences of decisions, especially the value question.
- Consider business value over technological purity; not all systems need five nines reliability.
Retailer Error
- A retailer avoided extensive development by querying their data warehouse.
- This revealed a rare error condition, justifying a simpler solution.