When embarking on the journey of creating an architectural blueprint, it is vital to establish a clear set of goals that will serve as the foundation for every decision made throughout the project. These goals should be a blend of best practices and specific business requirements that the system must address. To ensure cohesion and understanding, it is essential to outline and communicate these goals with the entire project team from the very beginning. If well-defined, these goals should remain steadfast even if business requirements evolve over time.

In the projects I’ve designed, I’ve identified a core set of goals that this blog series will delve into in future posts:

1. Code Driven

   A code-driven architecture simplifies the setup of distributed environments, minimizing the risk of human error and manual effort. By describing all elements in code (or code-like files), changes can be tracked through versioning systems, making modifications seamless. In upcoming posts, we’ll explore tools that facilitate this approach.

2. Continuous Delivery

   A robust CI/CD pipeline ensures swift reflection of changes in online environments. This not only aids in identifying and resolving issues promptly but also enables quick development cycles, ensuring the project team remains agile. I’ll detail my approach to creating efficient CI/CD pipelines in the following posts.

3. Versionable

   Having an overall product version, in addition to individual component versions, aids in issue tracking, bug fixing, and customer communication. We’ll examine semi-automatic versioning methods that can be integrated with CI/CD pipelines.

4. Scalable

   Scalability is a fundamental aspect of distributed systems. We’ll explore how to achieve stable and predictable performance as system load increases using technologies like Kubernetes.

5. Secure

   Security is paramount in modern software. We’ll discuss key points that must be addressed in a distributed architecture to ensure robust defense against threats and attacks.

6. Extensible

   Distributed systems allow for evolution based on various requirements. Planning for future extensions from the outset is crucial to avoid costly rewrites. We’ll explore supporting extensibility in both backend and front-end clients.

7. Observable

   With many moving parts, distributed systems require comprehensive monitoring. We’ll discuss approaches for obtaining performance information, resource usage insights, and anomaly detection at runtime.

8. Decoupled

   Avoiding coupling within a distributed system is essential. We’ll cover best practices for maintaining a decoupled system, minimizing complexity, and easing maintenance and extensibility.

In conclusion, having a well-defined set of goals at the beginning of a distributed architecture project enables every subsequent decision to be cross-checked and aligned with these objectives. While the goals presented here have proven effective in my experience, I’m eager to learn about the unique goals you pursue in your projects. Feel free to share your insights, and let’s build successful distributed architectures together!