MicroServices For Better And Worse (with Ian Cooper and James Lewis)
Nov 14, 2024
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Ian Cooper, a software architect at Just Eat, and James Lewis, a Thoughtworks expert and microservices pioneer, dive into the complexities of microservices architecture. They reflect on over a decade of experiences, questioning the initial hype and the enduring challenges of defining microservice boundaries. Key discussions include adapting to rapid growth, the Goldilocks point concept, and the philosophical implications of resilience. They also explore how financial incentives impact recruitment and branding in the software engineering field.
The success of microservices heavily depends on aligning organizational structure with technical execution to avoid team fragmentation and miscommunication.
Critical reflection on past microservices implementations highlights the need for proactive architectural decision-making to anticipate future growth and challenges.
Deep dives
Importance of Breaking Down Software
The ability to decompose software into manageable subsystems is a fundamental skill that developers acquire early in their careers. Initially, this task starts with breaking down large files to improve organization and understanding, which subsequently evolves into partitioning entire systems. This skill becomes even more crucial when scaling organizations, requiring developers to think about how to divide entire businesses effectively. The transition from simple file structures to complex organizational systems emphasizes the importance of recognizing boundaries and responsibilities within software design.
Lessons Learned from Microservices Adoption
The episode reflects critically on the adoption of microservices as a supposed solution for scalability without properly assessing its implications. While some organizations successfully embraced this architectural style, many others encountered significant challenges and failures due to misunderstandings of the core principles and pressures to implement them rapidly. A recurring theme is the mismatch between organizational growth and technical decisions, leading to regrettable design choices that organizations later have to rectify. By analyzing past experiences, experts suggest that companies can learn from their mistakes when defining proper boundaries and selecting appropriate architectural approaches for their projects.
Organizational Structure and Microservices
The relationship between organizational structure and microservices becomes evident, as successful implementation requires alignment between teams and service boundaries. Companies need to orient their teams around microservices delivery, avoiding scenarios where teams become entangled in responsibilities that should remain separate. Experts emphasize that without a proper organizational focus, microservices can exacerbate tensions between teams, making it necessary for companies to evaluate their socio-technical dynamics. Ultimately, achieving optimal service partitioning is as much about organizational design as it is about technical execution.
Future Considerations for Software Architecture
The discussion touches on the evolving nature of software architecture and the need for organizations to simulate the impact of architectural decisions before making them. Using techniques like Barry O'Reilly's residuality theory, which allows teams to evaluate potential stressors and outcomes, organizations can avoid some pitfalls associated with microservices. The importance of anticipating future states ensures that businesses can adapt as they grow, reinforcing the idea that architectural choices should be based on both current and expected conditions. This proactive approach aims to establish resilient architectures that can withstand the test of time and complexity.
What have we learned from more than a decade of deploying microservices? Was it a good idea? Are we any better at figuring out what a microservice is, or where its boundaries lie? Does splitting things up create fragmentation problems? And is it too late to put the genie back in the bottle? This week we’re going to look at all these questions and more as we reflect on the lessons learnt from this big architectural idea.
This interview was recorded live at GOTO Copenhagen, with two microservice experts and thinkers: James Lewis of Thoughtworks and Ian Cooper of JustEat.