Building Evolutionary Architectures: Support Constant Change
Author: Vladik Khononov Year: 2023 Genre: Software Architecture
About This Book
Learn how to build software architectures that can evolve and adapt to changing requirements over time. Vladik Khononov provides a comprehensive guide to creating systems that remain flexible and maintainable as they grow and change.
This book explores the principles and practices of evolutionary architecture, helping developers and architects design systems that can adapt to new requirements, technologies, and business needs without requiring complete rewrites.
Key Insights
- Fitness functions: Make architecture qualities measurable (e.g. latency, blast radius) and enforce them continuously.
- Boundaries enable change: Strong module and team boundaries reduce coordination costs and speed delivery.
- Prefer options over predictions: Choose designs that keep future choices open rather than optimising for a single forecast.
- Automate safety: CI/CD, contract tests, and progressive delivery protect production while you iterate.
- Socio‑technical alignment: Team topology and architecture must co‑evolve to reduce friction.
- Modernise in slices: Strangle patterns and incremental decomposition beat big‑bang rewrites.
Why I Recommend It
It gives you a playbook for designing systems that stay malleable as the business moves. The idea of architectural fitness functions alone is worth the read—turning “-ilities” into actionable, testable checks.
Use it to avoid over‑engineering early and painful rewrites later.
Key Highlights
- Practical Focus: Real-world examples and case studies throughout
- Comprehensive Approach: Covers technical, organisational, and process aspects
- Future-Proof Design: Principles that remain relevant as technologies change
- Change Management: Specific strategies for handling different types of changes
- Team Collaboration: Guidance on organising teams for evolutionary development
Who Should Read This
- Software architects designing long-lived systems
- Development team leads managing evolving codebases
- DevOps engineers implementing continuous delivery
- Product managers working with rapidly changing requirements
- Anyone involved in modernizing legacy systems
“Essential reading for anyone building software systems that need to adapt and evolve over time.” - Industry Review