Software Architecture: The Hard Parts

This is a great book! It is a sequel to the authors' prior book, "Fundamentals of Software Architecture" (which isn't a prerequisite to this book, but is helpful). I liked that book. This one is way better. Where the first book stayed fairly high level and abstract, and focused on working as an architect in a company, this book is all about actual tough architecture decisions in practice. It applies some of the the first book's approaches and patterns (and a whole bunch of new ones) towards a fictional example application which a dev team is tasked to completely refactor. Basically, the book is structured as a narrative about a team breaking down a faulty outdated monolithic application into a modern microservices-based architecture. Each chapter essentially compares different aspects of how a monolithic architecture might have been written to do something in the past, then how a modern microservice architecture could do the same thing today. Along the way the authors offer terrific advice and approaches for effective tradeoff analysis (and countless suggestions and tips) that you can use when refactoring a large monolith app (or when building microservices from scratch), detailing at every level how you might sort out a tangled mess of dependencies into a clean microservices stack - from shared code libs/components/modules, to shared database tables and schemas, to various network concerns, etc. There is nearly no code (it's not an implementation book), but the descriptions of each example scenario, pattern, diagram, and everything around it are extensive and detailed. The authors don't actually offer any definitive "best practice" in any of the scenarios they consider, but rather present all the pros and cons of each approach you might consider - which all together support their overall thesis that there are no right or wrong answers in architecture, only tradeoffs to weigh and consider for any given design challenge and possible architectural solution. I give this book my highest recommendation - it's a winner.

The first part of the book describes strategies on how to break apart a monolithic software package into components. The second part gives advise how to make those separated components work together. In doing so, the authors acknowledge that there is no such thing as “best practice” in how to design a system since every organisation has their own requirements and existing baggage to deal with. Designing a system fit for purpose is unique and hard. The book presents different options how to tackle most common problems and the associated trade-offs (e.g. data consistency vs. responsiveness). The red line throughout this book is a fictitious company where the IT department needs to re-architect the existing system. Each chapter starts with a discussion (i.e., meeting) of the problems that needs to be tackled. Then, the theoretical aspects are described. At the end of the chapter, the team makes a decision which seem to be appropriate for their specific situations based on trade-off analysis discussed in the theoretical part. This makes the book a very useful as one gets a pretty comprehensive understanding of various methodologies as well as possible practical applications.

Lots of books about architecture can give you a focus on a particular technique, or a technology. But this is one of the few I’ve found which captures a realistic scenario across an entire system, which is often where most of us face the greatest challenge. Nothing presented in the book is done in absolute terms, the rough edges are laid out, and wide varieties of technology categories are included. I’d call this a must read for anyone looking to architect a distributed system, or who are looking to handle a debt ridden system in general, to find the mindset and practices needed to support it.

This is a great read for those directly or indirectly involved in software architecture. The book covers basics , patterns, and a few more advanced topics and makes for a great reference read thanks to these sensible advice provided. I originally purchased this as an audio book but repurchased as a physical copy due to its quality.

The real jewel of the book is not its well presented categorization of distributed communication patterns, but its repeated highlighting at that architecture decisions are all about trade-off. It won't solve the challenge straight away, yet the learnt analyzing technique and mindset set me on a right path.

An excellent follow up to the fundamentals of software architecture. This book describes an easily understood framework for making decisions. The mixture of diagrams, scenarios and theory is very useful.

Great book. Just what is promised in the title: practical walkthrough of trade-off analysis for the forces in play when building distributed systems. The authors also collect/define terminology that makes the articulation of these complex problems straightforward which gives engineers and architects the ability to manage trade off with both technical and business stakeholders.

Fast delivery, Book Quality is top notch.

Awesome book. Great overview and some deep dives into the many trade off dimensions architects are challenged with every day

o'reilly publishing sucks. I wish authors self-published. I would buy that instead.

This is one of the best books I've ever read. I recommend it for every software architect

This book teaches you how to think with real criteria, it’s a true gem in the world of systems. Even today, when I reread it, I see how many of the challenges it presents are now solved by modern technologies. That gives me the ability to understand why certain decisions were made back then, and also why, with today’s tools, I would approach them differently. Without a doubt, it has become a classic in the field, and I now fully understand why.

Very interesting insights for all architects working on distributed achitectures.