Building Evolutionary Architectures

Chapter 4. Architectural Coupling

Discussions about architecture frequently boil down to coupling: how the pieces of the architecture connect and rely on one another. Many architects decry coupling as a necessary evil, but it’s difficult to build complex software without relying on (and coupling with) other components. Evolutionary architecture focuses on appropriate coupling—how to identify which dimensions of the architecture should be coupled to provide maximum benefit with minimal overhead and cost.

Modularity

First, let’s untangle some of the common terms used and overused in discussions about architecture. Different platforms offer different reuse mechanisms for code, but all support some way of grouping related code together into modules. Modularity describes a logical grouping of related code. Modules in turn may be packaged in different physical ways. Components are the physical packaging of modules. Modules imply logical grouping, while components imply physical partitioning.

Developers find it useful to further subdivide components based on engineering practices, including build and deployment considerations. One kind of component is a library, which tends to run in the same memory address as the calling code and communicates via language function call mechanisms. Libraries are usually compile-time dependencies. Most concerns around libraries exist in application architecture, as most complex applications consist of a variety of components. The other type of component, ...