A newsletter that started as a personal learning and getting-in-touch project by Ivan Krnic grew into a sociotechnical newsletter covering topics of technical excellence, organizational improvements, and productivity.
THE way or A way?
“Microservices was never supposed to be THE way to build systems, it was supposed to be A way to build systems.”
–Sam Newman
Is there a single best software architecture? No.
Software architecture is all about the context. What helps navigate to the appropriate architecture is being outcome-oriented instead of activity-oriented.
If you catch yourself thinking that you need to implement 57 microservices, you’re activity-oriented! You’ll do whatever it takes to implement those 57 microservices, no matter how that reflects on your team or clients.
However, if you’re outcome-oriented and set out to solve a particular problem (such as increasing team autonomy and scaling the organization), microservices will be just one possible solution. And if it doesn’t work, you will try something else, like a modular monolith. That wouldn’t be a failure; instead, you would have tried, learned, and ultimately solved your initial problem with a different tool.
Listen to my conversation with Sam Newman and Michael Heiss.
Interview of the Month
Software architecture w/ Sam and Michael
Sam Newman and Michael Heiss have a long history of helping organizations with technical architectures and organizational dynamics. I talked with them about the future of software architecture, the return of the Monolith, and the importance of play in daily work. This episode is special since we recorded it live at the QED conference!
Handpicked articles
InfoQ Software Architecture and Design Trends Report – April 2024 – Folks at InfoQ are sharing their latest edition of the report. Heads up – platforms are rising while Microservices and Event Sourcing are sinking in the Late Majority.
State of Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery Report – Check out the correlation between DevOps and delivery performance and how you stack up against the industry.
Read with us
What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid?: Discover a Life Filled with Purpose and Joy Through the Secrets of Jewish Wisdom
Get the bookReally, what would you do if you weren’t afraid?
This week at the QED conference, I listened to one of the most thought-provoking talks – Michal Oshman laid bare her soul and urged us to think big, make the first move, bridge silos in the organization, and create playgrounds where people can dare to experiment without fear of failure.
I strongly recommend Michal’s book to those who weren’t with us.
