My Thoughts on Software Architecture: The Hard Parts
I finished reading another book I had on my list — Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures by Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage, and Zhamak Dehghani (what a name). In this post, I want to share some of my thoughts about the book.
Book Contents
The recurring theme of this book is that there is no one-size-fits-all solution in software development. Rather, there are better-suited solutions for different situations. For instance, if we prioritize speed and responsiveness over ACID transactions and robust querying capabilities, a document-based (NoSQL) database might be a better choice. With the right requirements in mind, we can choose the best solution for a given problem.
Every decision in software architecture comes with trade-offs, which this book discusses in-depth. It emphasizes the importance of analyzing decisions and keeping a record of them. This process is demonstrated throughout a scenario where a company transitions from monolithic application into distributed system.
What I also like about this book is that it also introduces a software architecture as a design process in itself. It explores the various aspects of software, including coupling, complexity, performance, modularity, and evolution, and provides insights on how to address each of them. These aspects can be analyzed from different layers of the application, such as the data layer and application layer.
Who Is This Book For?
I would recommend this book to anyone interested in building robust systems. The target audience for this book would likely be people interested in software development wanting to learn more about software architecture and software design.
While I found the book interesting and engaging, it did not offer me much new information, as I was already familiar with the topics covered. However, for those new to the field, this book can provide valuable insights and guidance.
