Beyond accidental architecture

Software systems always express some form of architecture. Many times those architectures reflect the mere circumstances and microtrends prevailing at various times. But long-term success doesn’t happen by accident. When approached deliberately, software architecture and design can produce benefits for teams in a variety of ways.

James Thompson (Cingo Solutions) demonstrates how to assess approaches and make decisions based on what matters to your team and your projects by answering the following guiding questions:

• What is software architecture?
• What decisions are architectural?
• How do you discuss software architecture?
• How do you document architectural decisions?
• How do you encourage continued learning?

These questions give you a framework for thinking about how to do software architecture in a collaborative way. Software development is a collaborative effort, and software architecture should be also. Software architecture is something that every developer should be equipped and empowered to engage with—leading to a more collaborative way of developing and maintaining your software systems.

This session was recorded at the 2019 O'Reilly Software Architecture Conference in New York.