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Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures 1st Edition
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There are no easy decisions in software architecture. Instead, there are many hard parts--difficult problems or issues with no best practices--that force you to choose among various compromises. With this book, you'll learn how to think critically about the trade-offs involved with distributed architectures.
Architecture veterans and practicing consultants Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage, and Zhamak Dehghani discuss strategies for choosing an appropriate architecture. By interweaving a story about a fictional group of technology professionals--the Sysops Squad--they examine everything from how to determine service granularity, manage workflows and orchestration, manage and decouple contracts, and manage distributed transactions to how to optimize operational characteristics, such as scalability, elasticity, and performance.
By focusing on commonly asked questions, this book provides techniques to help you discover and weigh the trade-offs as you confront the issues you face as an architect.
- Analyze trade-offs and effectively document your decisions
- Make better decisions regarding service granularity
- Understand the complexities of breaking apart monolithic applications
- Manage and decouple contracts between services
- Handle data in a highly distributed architecture
- Learn patterns to manage workflow and transactions when breaking apart applications
- ISBN-101492086894
- ISBN-13978-1492086895
- Edition1st
- PublisherO'Reilly Media
- Publication dateNovember 30, 2021
- LanguageEnglish
- Dimensions7 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
- Print length459 pages
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Sharing the knowledge of experts
O'Reilly's mission is to change the world by sharing the knowledge of innovators. For over 40 years, we've inspired companies and individuals to do new things (and do them better) by providing the skills and understanding that are necessary for success.
Our customers are hungry to build the innovations that propel the world forward. And we help them do just that.
From the Publisher
From the Preface
When two of your authors, Neal and Mark, were writing the book Fundamentals of Software Architecture, we kept coming across complex examples in architecture that we wanted to cover but that were too difficult. Each one offered no easy solutions but rather a collection of messy trade-offs. We set those examples aside into a pile we called “The Hard Parts.” Once that book was finished, we looked at the now gigantic pile of hard parts and tried to figure out: why are these problems so difficult to solve in modern architectures?
We took all the examples and worked through them like architects, applying trade-off analysis for each situation, but also paying attention to the process we used to arrive at the trade-offs. One of our early revelations was the increasing importance of data in architecture decisions: who can/should access data, who can/should write to it, and how to manage the separation of analytical and operational data.
To that end, we asked experts in those fields to join us, which allows this book to fully incorporate decision making from both angles: architecture to data and data to architecture.
The result is this book: a collection of difficult problems in modern software architecture, the trade-offs that make the decisions hard, and ultimately an illustrated guide to show you how to apply the same trade-off analysis to your own unique problems.
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| Head First Software Architecture | Fundamentals of Software Architecture | Communication Patterns | The Software Architect Elevator | Software Architecture: The Hard Parts | |
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| Price | $56.63$56.63 | $43.99$43.99 | $48.99$48.99 | $46.85$46.85 | $32.15$32.15 |
| What is it? | Head First Software Architecture teaches you how to think architecturally and explores the unique challenges of software architecture, using a visually rich format to engage your mind. | A comprehensive overview of aspects of software architecture including architectural characteristics, architectural patterns, diagramming and presenting architecture, evolutionary architecture, and more. | A comprehensive guide to communicating software architecture. Learn how to successfully present your architecture and get stakeholders to jump on board. | Learn how to combine organizational and technical knowledge in order to effect change in your company’s structure and processes. | There are many hard parts in software architecture that force you to choose among various compromises. This book teaches you how to think critically about the trade-offs. |
| What you'll learn | The distinction between architecture and design; the relationship between code, components, and architectural styles; and how to work with common architectural styles. | How to use architecture patterns and make architectural decisions; how to use coupling, cohesion, partitioining, and granuality; soft skills; and engineering practices. | How to design appropriate diagrams and documentation, and master written, verbal, and nonverbal communication to succeed in technical settings. | How to work with an organization as a whole, connecting the IT engine room to the penthouse, where the business strategy is defined. | How to determine service granularity, manage workflows and orchestration, manage and decouple contracts, and manage distributed transactions to how to optimize operational characteristics. |
| Who is this book for? | If you're a software developer looking for a quick on-ramp to software architecture, this handy guide is a great place to start. | Senior software developers, aspiring and 'accidental' software architects, and software architects looking to solidify their knowledge. | Software developers and software architects who want to learn how to communicate their architectures effectively. | Software architects, senior developers, enterprise architects and senior technologists. | Software architects who are ready to delve into the 'hard parts' of software architecture. |
| Who else is it for? | Those who want to gain an understanding of architectural dimensions and understand the differences between architecture and design. | Those in other roles that need to understand the main concepts of software architecture. | Those in other roles that work with software architecture and want to understand diagrams and documentation further. | CTOs, senior technical architects and IT managers who are devising an IT strategy that impacts the way the organization works. | Those in other roles who would like to understand more about the complex decisions in software architecture. |
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Mark Richards is an experienced, hands-on software architect involved in the architecture, design, and implementation of microservices architectures, service-oriented architectures, and distributed systems in a variety of technologies. He has been in the software industry since 1983 and has significant experience and expertise in application, integration, and enterprise architecture. Mark is the founder of DeveloperToArchitect.com, a free website devoted to helping developers in the journey to becoming a software architect. He is the author of numerous technical books and videos, as well as a conference speaker and trainer, having spoken at hundreds of conferences and user groups around the world on a variety of enterprise-related technical topics.
Product details
- Publisher : O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (November 30, 2021)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 459 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1492086894
- ISBN-13 : 978-1492086895
- Item Weight : 1.65 pounds
- Dimensions : 7 x 1.1 x 9.1 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #31,699 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3 in Software Design Tools
- #4 in Computer Systems Analysis & Design (Books)
- #10 in Software Testing
- Customer Reviews:
About the authors

Neal is Director, Software Architect, and Meme Wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a software company and a community of passionate, purpose-led individuals, who thinks disruptively to deliver technology to address the toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change. He is an internationally recognized expert on software development and delivery, especially in the intersection of agile engineering techniques and software architecture. Neal has authored magazine articles, eight books (and counting), dozens of video presentations, and spoken at hundreds of developers conferences worldwide. His topics include software architecture, continuous delivery, functional programming, cutting edge software innovations, and includes a business-focused book and video on improving technical presentations

Mark Richards is an experienced, hands-on software architect involved in the architecture, design, and implementation of microservices architectures, service-oriented architectures, and distributed systems in a variety of technologies. He has been in the software industry since 1983 and has significant experience and expertise in application, integration, and enterprise architecture. Mark is the founder of DeveloperToArchitect.com, a free website devoted to helping developers in the journey to becoming a software architect. He is the author of numerous technical books and videos as well as a conference speaker and trainer, having spoken at hundreds of conferences and user groups around the world on a variety of enterprise-related technical topics.

Zhamak Dehghani is a technologist, focusing on distributed systems and data architecture in large and complex environments. She’s a member of multiple technology advisory boards. Zhamak is an advocate for the decentralization of all things, including architecture, data, and ultimately power. She is the founder of data mesh.
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Some minor criticisms:
* the Data Mesh chapter felt tacked on, underdeveloped and in some places was incorrect or at least confusing (e.g. it says data warehouses cause loss of domain partitioning which is not true)
* The book talked about tradeoffs so much it wasn't always clear why they thought taking a certain path would hurt a certain quality attribute. "Because there is more coupling scalability will suffer", etc. Perhaps. But explaining how would be great. The book hints at some relationships between quality attributes. If that were more well-developed that could be a way to better understand these statements too.
* While I'm sure it wasn't meant for effect, there is only one woman in the story portions, she is somewhat naive, a bossy PITA and has to be dragged along most of the time. Having the *only woman* play that role stood out to me as potentially insensitive.
A few things that would make this book even better
- Integrating DDD concepts especially around aggregates
- Adding additional and/or more detailed decision dimensions for the people aspect (skills, org size and ability to grow, org design, etc), operations architecture, and development architecture. When making decisions these things have to be accounted for and these aspects seemed underplayed a bit.
Overall though this is one of the most pragmatic books on tech I have read in a long time. A must read.
The book does not, however, cover any "hard parts". It only covers the basics, often superficially. Naming the book "Migrating Monoliths to Microservices" or "Microservices Architecture 101" would have been more appropriate.
That is not a criticism of the contents, which is valuable if that is what you are looking for. But the title is misleading.
The biggest weakness of the book is its coverage of distributed data stores. This is probably the hardest part of distributed systems, and this book barely covers this topic at all.
Top reviews from other countries
Reviewed in France on May 18, 2024
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.



















