CODE CRAFTING
TIPS
SOFTWARE
ARCHITECTURE
GUIDELINES
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
1. UNDERSTAND THE
REQUIREMENTS
You'll never get it 100% right the first
time, but do your best to understand
the requirements and constraints of
the system to the best of your
knowledge before you start designing
anything.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
2. COMMUNICATE WITH
STAKEHOLDERS
Continuously interact with
stakeholders to ensure the
architectural direction aligns with
business needs. Business needs are
what we're trying to cover, after all.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
3. VALIDATE WITH
PROTOTYPES
Before committing to a particular
architecture, build prototypes to
validate your assumptions.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
4. ADOPT ESTABLISHED
PATTERNS
Familiarize yourself with design and
architectural patterns. Don't try to
force their use, but rather recognize
the problems in the design of your own
system and double-check if any of the
patterns are solving them for you.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
5. MODULARIZE THE
DESIGN
Divide the system into manageable
and modular components that can be
developed, tested, and maintained
independently.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
6. DECOUPLE
COMPONENTS
Implement strategies such as
Dependency Injection to reduce tight
interdependencies between system
components. Promoting loose coupling
enhances system flexibility,
maintainability, and ease of testing.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
7. SEPARATE THE
CONCERNS
Organize the system into distinct
modules or layers, each addressing a
specific functionality or domain. This
ensures clarity, improves
maintainability, and reduces
interdependencies, allowing for
focused enhancements.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
8. STRIVE FOR
REUSABILITY
Identify repetitive components and
refactor them for broader use. Aim to
create modular and adaptable
solutions, but avoid over-engineering
or preemptively building generic
components without clear, recurring
needs.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
9. PLAN FOR
SCALABILITY
Design the system to accommodate
growth, ensuring it can handle
increased user demands, data
volumes, and integration needs
without compromising performance.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
10. ESTABLISH A
VERSIONING STRATEGY
Adopt a consistent approach to
versioning, ensuring backward
compatibility and smooth transitions,
allowing users to adapt to changes
without disruptions.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
11. IMPLEMENT LOGGING
AND MONITORING
Build mechanisms for monitoring
system health and logging essential
activities. This will allow you to set up
a proper alerting system, make the
system more robust, and detect the
causes of malfunctions way faster
when things start going sideways.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
12. PRIORITIZE SECURITY
MEASURES
Prioritize security by addressing
known vulnerabilities, implementing
robust authentication and
authorization mechanisms, and
ensuring data encryption. From the
start, embed security considerations
into every system design and
deployment aspect.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
13. ENSURE DATA
INTEGRITY AND
CONSISTENCY
Prioritize ensuring data remains
accurate, consistent, and reliable
throughout its lifecycle. Implement
checks, validations, and proper
database constraints, particularly in
data-intensive systems, to prevent
data corruption or discrepancies.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
14. SET UP BACKUP AND
RECOVERY
Establish regular backup procedures
to safeguard data and system
configurations. Ensure a robust
recovery mechanism is in place,
allowing for swift restoration in the
event of data loss or system failures,
minimizing downtime and data
discrepancies.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
15. PLAN FOR DISASTER
RECOVERY AND ENSURE
HIGH AVAILABILITY
Implement a DR plan for system and
data restoration. Use redundancy and
failover for consistent uptime and
uninterrupted service during
component failures.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
16. FOLLOW ETHICAL
STANDARDS AND
REGULATIONS
Ensure the system complies with
ethical standards, especially when
handling sensitive or personal data. Be
aware of and comply with relevant
regulations and industry standards to
protect user privacy and maintain
trust.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
17. DESIGN FOR
MAINTAINABILITY
Design with the future in mind. Use
clear coding standards,
documentation, and modular
architecture to ensure that developers
can easily understand, update, and
improve the system over time.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
18. ENHANCE USER
EXPERIENCE
Recognize that architectural decisions
can impact how users interact with the
system. Prioritize performance,
responsiveness, and reliability to
enhance the user experience.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
19. DESIGN FOR FLEXIBILITY
AND EXTENSIBILITY
Make sure your system can work with
other systems or future modules
effortlessly. Allow room for changes
and enhancements without needing to
revamp the entire system.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
20. DEVELOP
ITERATIVELY
Instead of trying to perfect it the first
time, plan for iterations. Continuously
refine and adapt the architecture
based on feedback and changing
requirements.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
21. PERFORM STRESS AND
LOAD TESTING
Regularly test the system under
expected and peak loads to ensure it
performs reliably and efficiently under
real-world conditions.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
22. HANDLE FAILURES
GRACEFULLY
Design systems with resilience in
mind. When failures occur, the system
should degrade gracefully, providing
informative feedback to users and
allowing for swift recovery.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
23. AUTOMATE
EVERYTHING
Implement automation wherever
possible, from testing and integration
to deployment, to improve efficiency,
consistency, and reliability.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
24. DOCUMENT
ARCHITECTURAL DECISIONS
Always document your architectural
decisions, assumptions, and the
reasons behind them. This provides
clarity for future developers and
stakeholders and captures the
system's evolution. ADRs can help with
this one.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
25. ENCOURAGE
FEEDBACK LOOPS
Post-launch, gather feedback from
users and monitor system
performance. Use this data to make
informed improvements and
refinements.
Mario Smolčić SWIPE
www.codecrafting.tips
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