Beyond the Twelve-Factor App

Preface

Buzzwords are the result of our need to build a shared language that allows us to communicate about complex topics without having to stop and do a review. Shared terminology isn’t just convenient, it’s essential for decision making, architecture design, debates, and even just friendly discussion.

The Twelve-Factor Application is one of these phrases that is gaining traction and is being passed around during planning meetings, discussions over coffee, and architecture review sessions.

The problem with shared context and common language like buzzwords is that not everyone has the same understanding. Twelve-Factor to one person might mean something entirely different to someone else, and many readers of this book might not have any exposure to the 12 factors.

The goal of this book is to provide detail on what exactly Twelve-Factor applications are so that hopefully everyone who has read the book shares the same understanding of the factors. Additionally, this book aims to take you beyond the 12 factors, expanding on the original guidelines to accommodate modern thinking on building applications that don’t just function in the cloud, but thrive.

The Original 12 Factors

In the early days of the cloud, startups appeared that offered something with which few developers or companies had any experience. It was a new level of abstraction that offered IT professionals freedom from a whole category of nonfunctional requirements. To some, this was a dark and scary frontier. Others ...