Software Architecture for a Digital Age

Software architecture emerged in the 1990s, and has been evolving ever since, from a directive, up-front activity, where a single architect created the architecture, which was then implemented by others, to today’s team based adaptive architectural approaches where architecture is a shared activity owned by the entire team. In this talk we’ll explore the architectural practices that deliver architecture as a “shared commons” which supports the Agile+DevOps ways-of-working needed for success in the digital age.

Transcript

1. SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE FOR A DIGITAL AGE
   EOIN WOODS
   SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE GATHERING
   OCTOBER 2021
   

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2. Eoin Woods
   • Endava’s CTO, based in London (6 years)
   • 10+ years in products - Bull, Sybase, InterTrust
   • 10 years in capital markets - UBS and BGI
   • Software engineer, architect, now CTO
   • Author, editor, speaker, community guy
   

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3. SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
   FOR A DIGITAL AGE
   3
   

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4. The Digital Age: Intelligent Connected Platforms
   

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5. Digital Platform Characteristics
   5
   Always On
   Cloud-Based
   Unpredictable Direction
   Parallel Evolution
   Extensible by Design
   “Intelligent” Behaviour
   Many Interfaces
   Highly Connected
   Publicly Accessible
   Regular Deployment
   

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6. Digital Platform Characteristics
   6
   Multi Dimensional
   Software Architecture and Engineering
   Challenge!
   

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7. Evolving Practice
   7
   FLUID
   EVOLVING
   ARCHITECTURE
   DevOps (and SRE)
   Microservices and Serverless
   Cloud Infrastructure
   Agile Working
   Reusable Cloud Services
   

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8. THE CHANGING ROLE OF THE ARCHITECT
   8
   

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9. What is the problem?
   9
   ? ?
   !!
   ?
   !!
   !! ? !!
   

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10. Traditional software architecture is of less value
    10
    Autonomous teams
    Independent activity
    Constant decision making
    Architect overload
    Progress
    Blocked
    

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11. Traditional software architecture is of less value
    11
    Constant evolution
    Less known early in delivery
    Less value in “up front” architecture
    

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12. 12
    “Continuous Architecture” is one of the
    emerging responses to these challenges
    

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13. CONTINUOUS SOFTWARE ARCHITECTURE
    13
    

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14. Is architecture still needed?
    14
    • Achieving quality attributes
    • Balancing stakeholder concerns
    • Making complex tradeoffs
    • Achieving cross cutting concerns
    across many independent parts
    But architecture is now a
    continual flow of decisions
    Cross-Cutting Concerns
    Tradeoffs
    Stakeholders
    Quality
    Attributes
    Yes!
    

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15. 15
    Architecture is a skill not (just) a role
    Stream of decisions, not “one off” architecture
    Principles, styles & patterns over structures
    Delegate & share wherever possible
    ”Little and often” (and adapt)
    Aim for a “shared commons”
    Architecture
    Work in the
    New World
    

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16. • Principle 1: Architect products: evolve from projects to products
    • Principle 2: Focus on quality attributes, not functional requirements
    • Principle 3: Delay design decisions until absolutely necessary
    • Principle 4: Architect for change – leverage the “power of small”
    • Principle 5: Architect for build, test, deploy and operate
    • Principle 6: Model the organisation of your teams after
    the design of the system
    Continuous Architecture Principles
    16
    www.continuousarchitecture.info
    Murat Erder &
    Pierre Pureur, 2015
    

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17. Architecture
    Largely Up-Front
    Iterative Development
    (with architecture refinement)
    Incremental Delivery
    Test
    Deliver
    Analysis
    Design
    Construct
    iN i1
    i2
    Stakeholder
    Concerns
    Moving to Continuous Software Architecture
    

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18. Moving to Continuous Software Architecture
    Test
    Deliver
    Architecture
    Analysis
    Design
    Construct
    iN i1
    i2
    Incremental Delivery
    Architectural
    Knowledge
    Architectural
    Decisions
    Stakeholder
    Concerns
    (See Eltjo Poort’s work on
    “Risk and Cost Driven Architecture”)
    Agile Development with
    Continuous Architecture
    

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19. Moving to Continuous Architecture
    19
    Principles
    1. We prefer industry protocols,
    then standard in-house ones,
    then ad-hoc point-to-point ones
    2. Partner specific detail must not
    pollute domain model …
    3. Do not use cloud specific services
    Principles
    1. We prefer industry protocols,
    then standard in-house ones,
    then ad-hoc point-to-point ones
    2. Partner specific detail must not
    pollute domain model …
    3. Do not use cloud specific services
    Principles
    1. We prefer industry protocols,
    then standard in-house ones,
    then ad-hoc point-to-point ones
    2. Partner specific detail must not
    pollute domain model …
    3. Do not use cloud specific services
    Styles &
    Patterns
    Principles
    Decisions
    Top Down Prescriptive Design Evolving Shared Design
    

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20. Artifacts of Continuous Architecture
    20
    Styles & Patterns:
    Common solutions to
    repeating problems
    Evolving
    Shared Design
    Principles
    1. We prefer industry protocols,
    then standard in-house ones,
    then ad-hoc point-to-point ones
    2. Partner specific detail must not
    pollute domain model …
    3. Do not use cloud specific services
    Principles
    1. We prefer industry protocols,
    then standard in-house ones,
    then ad-hoc point-to-point ones
    2. Partner specific detail must not
    pollute domain model …
    3. Do not use cloud specific services
    Principles
    1. We prefer industry protocols,
    then standard in-house ones,
    then ad-hoc point-to-point ones
    2. Partner specific detail must not
    pollute domain model …
    3. Do not use cloud specific services
    Principles:
    Guidance to achieve
    aligned design decisions
    Decisions:
    Understanding what we
    did, when and why
    

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21. To make artefacts useful they must be …
    Minimal
    Usable
    Significant
    Indexed
    Checked
    Have an audience
    Have a purpose
    and always …
    

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22. Essential Continuous Architecture Activities
    22
    Provide
    Leadership
    Focus on
    Quality
    Attributes
    Drive
    Architectural
    Decisions
    Manage
    Technical
    Debt
    Implement
    Feedback
    Loops
    

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23. Essential Continuous Architecture Activities
    23
    Provide
    Leadership
    Focus on
    Quality
    Attributes
    Drive
    Architectural
    Decisions
    Manage
    Technical
    Debt
    Implement
    Feedback
    Loops
    Leadership not management
    Technical concerns not budget and time
    “Technical conscience” of the team
    System wide concerns
    Often forgotten in ”dash to features”
    Tradeoffs and specialist knowledge
    Ensure good decisions are made
    Ensure principles understood and followed
    Ensure decisions are captured & understood
    Constantly measure
    Understand the implications
    Manage intentionally
    Measure delivery & operation
    Spot trends and warning levels
    Use to assess architectural quality
    Use to focus architectural attention
    

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24. TO CONCLUDE
    24
    

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25. Software development is changing:
    so will software architecture
    25
    Agile + DevOps
    change how we WORK
    Cloud + Containers
    change how we BUILD
    Less “Upfront” Architecture
    Quality Attributes, Tradeoffs, Stakeholders
    Flow Of Decisions & Guidance
    Changes to Architect’s Work
    Changes to Architect Training
    

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26. Architect: From Purveyor of Wisdom …
    26
    

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27. … to Trusted Leader and Advisor
    27
    

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28. To Find Out More
    28
    continuousarchitecture.info
    continuous-architecture.com
    

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29. Eoin Woods
    Endava
    eoin.woods@endava.com
    @eoinwoodz
    29
    THANK YOU … QUESTIONS?
    

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