In my experience, software architectural failure is endemic across multiple organizations and not an epidemic. The subtle difference is that many companies lack

In my experience, software architectural failure is endemic across multiple organizations and not an epidemic. The subtle difference is that many companies lack the discipline or the desire to vet new technologies or to review existing technologies to ensure that they still fulfill the needs of the organization. A hospital, for example, isn’t going to just up and all their preop procedures just because a doctor went to a conference and learned about some new technique. The software world suffers many organizational failures in this regard, which is why I say it’s an endemic problem. I’ve been in both kinds of shops, the kind where tech was scored according to its ability to fit an organizational need, and the kind where developers recode the whole front end in the “js flavor of the year” because it seemed cool. There are for sure engineers just as much as there are developers. Engineers are the stewards that don’t implement a product because “web scale”. They implement because they understand the problems of the organization they’re in. We have to learn better to spot this shit and shit it down. I follow one rule right now that stops most of it in its tracks. If a developer tells you they want X technology because it can process 1.2 jiggahertz requests per second, they have no idea what problem it solves, unless your organization is facing performance issues. A good developer on the verge of becoming engineer grade will tell you that they want X technology because trying to perform Y process is painful and unmaintable in the current system, and that if we implement with X, it’ll reduce labor spent on this problem and deliver Z value to the company. Architecture isn’t failing, the folks with the hammers aren’t following the blueprints correctly.