Continuous Architecture in Practice

Description

Update Your Architectural Practices for New Challenges, Environments, and Stakeholder Expectations

“I am continuously delighted and inspired by the work of these authors. Their first book laid the groundwork for understanding how to evolve the architecture of a software-intensive system, and this latest one builds on it in some wonderfully actionable ways.”
–Grady Booch, Chief Scientist for Software Engineering, IBM Research

Authors Murat Erder, Pierre Pureur, and Eoin Woods have taken their extensive software architecture experience and applied it to the practical aspects of software architecture in real-world environments. Continuous Architecture in Practice provides hands-on advice for leveraging the continuous architecture approach in real-world environments and illuminates architecture’s changing role in the age of Agile, DevOps, and cloud platforms. This guide will help technologists update their architecture practice for new software challenges.

As part of the Vaughn Vernon Signature Series, this title was hand-selected for the practical, delivery-oriented knowledge that architects and software engineers can quickly apply. It includes in-depth guidance for addressing today’s key quality attributes and cross-cutting concerns such as security, performance, scalability, resilience, data, and emerging technologies. Each key technique is demonstrated through a start-to-finish case study reflecting the authors’ deep experience with complex software environments. Key topics include:

• Creating sustainable, coherent systems that meet functional requirements and the quality attributes stakeholders care about
• Understanding team-based software architecture and architecture as a “flow of decisions”
• Understanding crucial issues of data management, integration, and change, and the impact of varied data technologies on architecture
• Architecting for security, including continuous threat modeling and mitigation
• Architecting for scalability and resilience, including scaling microservices and serverless environments
• Using architecture to improve performance in continuous delivery environments
• Using architecture to apply emerging technologies successfully

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Foreword by Vaughn Vernon, Series Editor xv
Foreword by Kurt Bittner xix
Introduction xxi
Acknowledgments xxv
About the Authors xxvii

Chapter 1: Why Software Architecture Is More Important than Ever 1
What Do We Mean by Architecture? 1
Software Industry Today 3
Current Challenges with Software Architecture 5
Software Architecture in an (Increasingly) Agile World 8
Introducing Continuous Architecture 11
Applying Continuous Architecture 17
Introduction to the Case Study 19
Summary 22

Chapter 2: Architecture in Practice: Essential Activities 23
Essential Activities Overview 24
Architectural Decisions 26
Quality Attributes 32
Technical Debt 36
Feedback Loops: Evolving an Architecture 42
Common Themes in Today’s Software Architecture Practice 48
Summary 54

Chapter 3: Data Architecture 55
Data as an Architectural Concern 56
Key Technology Trends 60
Additional Architectural Considerations 76
Summary 84
Further Reading 85

Chapter 4: Security as an Architectural Concern 87
Security in an Architectural Context 88
Architecting for Security 92
Architectural Tactics for Mitigation 101
Maintaining Security 115
Summary 119
Further Reading 119

Chapter 5: Scalability as an Architectural Concern 123
Scalability in the Architectural Context 124
Architecting for Scalability: Architecture Tactics 134
Summary 155
Further Reading 156

Chapter 6: Performance as an Architectural Concern 159
Performance in the Architectural Context 159
Architecting for Performance 163
Summary 183
Further Reading 184

Chapter 7: Resilience as an Architectural Concern 187
Resilience in an Architectural Context 188
Architecting for Resilience 195
Architectural Tactics for Resilience 200
Maintaining Resilience 216
Summary 222
Further Reading 223

Chapter 8: Software Architecture and Emerging Technologies 225
Using Architecture to Deal with Technical Risk Introduced by New Technologies 226
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Deep Learning 227
Using Machine Learning for TFX 230
Using a Shared Ledger for TFX 246
Summary 257
Further Reading 258

Chapter 9: Conclusion 259
What Changed and What Remained the Same? 259
Updating Architecture Practice 261
Data 263
Key Quality Attributes 264
The Architect in the Modern Era 267
Putting Continuous Architecture in Practice 268

Appendix A: Case Study 269

Appendix B: Comparison of Technical Implementations of Shared Ledgers 299

Glossary 301
Index 311

” Continuous Architecture in Practice captures the key concerns of software architects today, including security, scalability and resilience, and provides valuable insights into managing emerging technologies such as machine/deep learning and blockchain. A recommended read!”
–Jan Bosch, Professor of Software Engineering and Director of the Software Center at Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden

” Continuous Architecture in Practice is a great introduction to modern-day software architecture, explaining the importance of shifting architectural thinking ‘left’ in order to form a set of firm foundations for delivery and continuous architecture evolution. I really liked the coverage of quality attributes, with a real-world case study providing a way to highlight the real-world complexities of the trade-offs associated with different solutions. The set of references to other material is impressive too, making this book incredibly useful for readers new to the domain of software architecture.”
–Simon Brown, author of Software Architecture for Developers

“In our ever-changing world of increasing system complexity, the responsibilities and skills required to be a software architect must continually evolve. Successfully adapting to constant requirements, technology, and business changes requires an architect to be multi-skilled, capable in engineering and technology, business and management. The role of architect has never been more challenging.

“This is why Continuous Architecture in Practice is an important book for all architects to absorb. The principles-based approach espoused in this book can be used to guide architects in charting a successful path in a broad range of project contexts. The essential activities for software architects present an excellent overview of the core professional skills an agile architect must possess, regardless of the problem domain and technologies in use.

“Most notably, the book devotes chapters to the key run-time quality attributes that drive modern systems. Security, performance, scalability, and resilience are the lifeblood of Internet-facing systems. Each chapter provides a contemporary overview of the characteristics of these quality attributes and explains tactics an architect can adopt to design and evolve systems that are built for long term survival. An additional chapter on data architectures recognizes an important system component that is rarely covered in architecture books. Data lies at the heart of most systems and creating resilient and scalable data architectures exploiting modern data technologies is a skill all architects should have.

“Written in an approachable, concise, and informative style, with concepts illustrated using an ongoing case study, this is an excellent book that will help architects address the many challenges of engineering systems in the 2020s and beyond. It is a deep source of knowledge suitable for practicing and aspiring architects, and an advanced college course in software architecture. It will repay the time investment many times over.”
–Professor Ian Gorton, Northeastern University

“Focus on software architecture can get lost when talking about agile software practices. However, the importance of architecture in software systems has always been and continues to be relevant. The authors address this important topic with their second book on Continuous Architecture. This time they provide advice on aspects that will make or break your system, from data to security, scalability and resilience. A much recommended book that offers practical guidance for anyone developing systems in today’s rapidly evolving technology landscape.”
–Ivar Jacobson

“This book continues the journey where its predecessor left off. Software today is never-ending, and true to its name, this book looks at continuing trends and applies Continuous Architecture principles using practical examples. The authors avoid the trap of picking popular tools whose relevance quickly expire, choosing instead to look at those trends that should influence and shape architecture decisions. This book will be essential reading for any person wanting to design and architect software systems that continue to keep up with the times.”
–Patrick Kua, CTO Coach and Mentor

“In the two-decade-old conflict between ‘big upfront design’ and ’emergent architecture,’ software architects have often had a hard time finding a meaningful compromise. In Continuous Architecture in Practice, Erder, Pureur, and Woods provide them with a proven path. This book is a big leap forward: I liked the more systematic use of architectural tactics–a design artifact that has not been exploited as much as it should. And that they brought the concept of architectural technical debt to a more prominent position in the process of making technical and managerial decisions.”
–Philippe Kruchten, software architect

“It’s high time that Agile architecture evolved from oxymoron to what it really needs to be, a lean, enabling practice that accelerates development and delivery of the next generation of resilient and scalable enterprise class systems. Continuous Architecture in Practice is another quantum step toward that goal and provides practical guidance toward creating designs that are responsive to changing requirements and technologies.”
–Dean Leffingwell, creator of SAFe

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