Derek Comartin, a Microsoft MVP and distributed systems architect, discusses breaking up monoliths, defining service boundaries, responsibilities and contracts in software delivery, benefits of asynchronous messaging, leveraging technologies, and the importance of context and boundaries in software architecture.
Setting clear boundaries and defining context in software architecture are crucial for developing high-quality and scalable systems.
Adopting vertical slices in software architecture allows for easier testing, maintainability, and scalability.
Boundaries, often defined through API contracts, play a crucial role in software architecture.
Deep dives
Importance of Boundaries and Context in Software Architecture
Setting clear boundaries and defining context in software architecture are crucial for developing high-quality and scalable systems. Boundaries help in isolating different functionalities and features within a system, allowing for independent development and testing. Vertical slices, which focus on specific features or capabilities, replace traditional layer-based architectures. By organizing code based on vertical slices, teams can work more efficiently, make changes to specific features, and adopt new technologies without rewriting the entire system. Context-driven development also emphasizes the use of messaging and asynchronous communication, enabling scalable and resilient systems. Asynchronous messaging not only enables loose coupling between components but also facilitates code isolation and unit testing. Additionally, setting clear boundaries and leveraging messaging technologies enhance the governance and maintainability of the system.
Vertical Slices and Dependencies
Adopting vertical slices in software architecture allows for easier testing, maintainability, and scalability. Rather than organizing code based on layers, a vertical slice approach focuses on grouping related features and functionalities. By treating each vertical slice as an independent unit, developers can easily locate and modify specific features without affecting other parts of the system. This approach also helps in managing dependencies within each vertical slice and provides flexibility in choosing technologies specific to each slice. Vertical slices also align with the principles of domain-driven design, fostering better domain understanding and efficient communication between team members working on the same slice.
Importance of Boundaries and APIs
Boundaries, often defined through API contracts, play a crucial role in software architecture. Clear boundaries allow for better separation of concerns, enabling independent development and deployment. APIs provide well-defined interfaces for communication between different parts of a system, ensuring loose coupling and interoperability. By adhering to boundary-driven development, teams gain better control over individual features and functionalities, leading to improved scalability, testability, and maintainability. Additionally, boundaries facilitate effective collaboration between different teams or stakeholders, as expectations and responsibilities are clearly defined through the API contracts.
Asynchronous Messaging and Scalability
Asynchronous messaging is a powerful tool in software architecture, especially for building scalable and resilient systems. By decoupling components and allowing for asynchronous communication, systems can handle high volumes of traffic without compromising performance or reliability. Messaging technologies like queues and event streams provide the necessary flexibility to distribute workloads, manage failures, and ensure graceful degradation. Asynchronous messaging enables services to independently process messages at their own pace, leading to better performance, fault tolerance, and scalability. By leveraging messaging in software architecture, organizations can achieve high-velocity software delivery and adaptability to changing requirements.
Importance of Boundary Ownership and Governance
Setting clear boundaries in software architecture necessitates defining ownership and governance. Clearly defining who owns specific boundaries and infrastructure plays a vital role in the overall system's success. Ownership can be distributed across teams, allowing them to make decisions and evolve their respective boundaries independently. Governance models allow for consistency, quality, and maintenance across different parts of the system. It includes considerations like choosing the right messaging technology, defining standards and guidelines, and ensuring proper communication between teams. Effective boundary ownership and governance significantly contribute to the system's flexibility, adaptability, and long-term maintainability.
Adam welcomes Derek Comartin to the show. Derek is a Microsoft Most-Valuable-Professional and distributed systems architect. He also co-hosts the Loosely Coupled podcast.
Derek discusses the ideas behind his talk the "Loosely Coupled Monolith" and "Context is King: Finding Service Boundaries". Great high level conversation on how software design principles inside applications scale out to distributed systems as a whole.