Software Architect's Handbook

Expecting change

Whatever the reasons are that serve as the catalysts for change, most software systems will be affected by some of them over their lifetime. While we may not be able to predict what technical or business changes may take place, we do know that, with very rare exceptions, software systems will undergo change.

Software architects should expect change and design their software systems so that they are capable of withstanding and adapting to it. Designing a software system to have an evolutionary architecture is how we can handle inevitable change. In the Designing evolutionary architectures section later in the chapter, we will cover how to design software architectures that are capable of adapting to change, but first let's ...