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Software Architecture: The Hard Parts: Modern Trade-Off Analyses for Distributed Architectures 1st Edition

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 517 ratings

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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


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From the Publisher

Software Architecture: The Hard Parts:
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.

Head First Software Architecture Fundamentals of Software Architecture Communication Patterns The Software Architect Elevator Software Architecture: The Hard Parts
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 $43.99 $48.99 $46.85 $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

Neal Ford is a director, software architect, and meme wrangler at ThoughtWorks, a software company and a community of passionate, purpose-led individuals who think disruptively to deliver technology to address the toughest challenges, all while seeking to revolutionize the IT industry and create positive social change. He's an internationally recognized expert on software development and delivery, especially in the intersection of Agile engineering techniques and software architecture. Neal has authored seven books (and counting), a number of magazine articles, and 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 a business-focused book and video on improving technical presentations. Check out his website, Nealford.com.

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
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 517 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on November 27, 2021
This is a great book. I enjoyed it far more than the fundamentals book. If you can master Kleppmann for the infrastructure grounding and this for real life use cases you'll be well on your way. I really appreciated the fact that they point out tradeoffs *everywhere*. That's part of the job and it can be hard to see them when we gravitate toward one option because it feels right or because of groupthink.

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.
62 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on February 3, 2023
I have been a CTO for ten years for companies big and small and have had to face the “legacy architect refactoring” challenge outlined in this book multiple times. This book would have saved us a lot of pain. While the tech and tooling for distributed architectures has gotten better and better the process for getting there hasn’t. The playbook outlined here is a must have for anyone facing the architecture modernization challenge.

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.
21 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 16, 2022
I thought that this book was the sequel. It’s not. Similar topics are followed. The authors did deep into the weeds. I think that some material could have been reduced and presented more tightly. There were a few times when I thought: just get to the point. The real benefit of this book is that the authors try to provide thought leadership to architects who have to make decisions found in this book. I really like that the authors intentionally state that architecture is a lot more than a design pattern and the choices architects face are not boilerplate in terms of picking one pattern instead of another.
9 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on May 27, 2023
This book provides a good overview of how to refactor a monolithic application into microservices, and thus also includes a good introduction to microservices architecture. The book is well written, easy to read, and well structured. Despite having multiple authors, the book is fairly consistent throughout, both in style and content.

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.
14 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 29, 2021
Love this book. The authors share their invaluable experience and knowledge in the book that worth every penny. I personally built a number of check-lists that I'm going to use in my trade-off analysis. The book is very well written. The authors carefully worked out every single paragraph to make it clear and easy to understand. The writing style and real world examples make the book very easy to read (well, maybe except the section about Data Mesh, which seems too abstract to me). If you liked "Fundamentals of Software Architecture" from Mark Richards and Neal Ford, you will certainly enjoy this one as a logical continuation of the latter.
9 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2023
great content, worthy of Orielly .. very easy read for someone very familiar with all the concepts .. great reference and very practical - really cool .. thank you i bought three more titles because of this one :)
Reviewed in the United States on August 2, 2022
A wonderfully clear and comprehensive discussion of the challenges faced in architectural decisions with an emphasis on distributed architectures. One of the best technical books I've read in years.
3 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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Lindolfo Reinert
5.0 out of 5 stars Retrata aplicação real, daquilo que é o desafio de decisões de arquitetura - lúdico e prático -
Reviewed in Brazil on June 6, 2022
Caminhos certos, mas cada um com suas consequências e "trade-off's" específicos. O desafio de decidir por uma abordagem de arquitetura para suportar uma operação de negócios é apresentada de forma bastante interessante. Baseada num cenário verossímil, e muito comum nas empresas. Vale a leitura.
14 people found this helpful
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Thiago Andrade
5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for high-quality committed engineers
Reviewed in Canada on January 30, 2022
Awesome book. Great overview and some deep dives into the many trade off dimensions architects are challenged with every day
2 people found this helpful
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Wutwut
3.0 out of 5 stars Livre endommagé
Reviewed in France on May 18, 2024
Le livre paraît neuf mais visiblement pris de l'humidité ou autre
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Wutwut
3.0 out of 5 stars Livre endommagé
Reviewed in France on May 18, 2024
Le livre paraît neuf mais visiblement pris de l'humidité ou autre
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A. Rose
5.0 out of 5 stars Top reference title
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 19, 2024
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.
Rui Pinheiro
5.0 out of 5 stars Really good overview on software architecture concepts and hints
Reviewed in Spain on March 18, 2024
I am following this book to improve my software architecture skills, and I find here not only a lot of good advice but also the "right words" to express many of my concerns as a Software Architect when trying to communicate them e.g. stakeholders. Most of the time I know why and how, but struggle to find the proper analogies and "translations" of the technical reasoning to contexts where what matters is the business perspective (and terminology). The book so far is supporting me a lot in this aspect. At a more practical level, it is also making me review my existing architectures with new perspectives and ideas.