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Fowler's article that made the most impact on me is the one about Monolith First, and how you shouldn't start with a complex distributed architecture, even if y

Fowler's article that made the most impact on me is the one about Monolith First, and how you shouldn't start with a complex distributed architecture, even if you're confident you'll need it in the future. https://martinfowler.com/bliki/MonolithFirst.html https://martinfowler.com/bliki/MonolithFirst.html Fowler shares ideas of architecture, but in a nuanced way, and clearly states when it might be appropriate, and what are the costs and complexities involved. The problem in your case seems to be more of "Architecture Astronauts". https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architecture-astronauts-scare-you/ https://www.joelonsoftware.com/2001/04/21/dont-let-architect... I wouldn't be surprised if the mere existence of a software architect title incentivizes overly complicated architectures

blub 5y ago
What's remarkable to me is that Fowler is telling an interesting story about a technical decision, includes an entertaining diagram, but in the end doesn't provide any proof either way. There's not a single piece of hard data in that article, not even how many of his colleagues are making the specific recommendation.
- JamesBarney 5y ago
  What proof would you expect him to bring? It's an article about his experience as a technical expert brought in to consult on many projects.
  - routerl 5y ago
    > What proof would you expect him to bring? Data. Data about software projects. What bugs me most about Fowler is his reception, not his writing. If we take his writing in the spirit you've outlined (an experienced developer sharing his anecdotes), there's no problem. But that just isn't how he's seen in the industry. There is a whole class of developers who take his writings as gospel, without the critical sense to wonder whether Fowler's experience/insight actually matches the project at hand.
    - JamesBarney 5y ago
      What data? Each project is building a different product with a different team. Even if he had data like "Teams that use monoliths complete there projects 20% faster", it'd still be useless because of the confounds. But let imagine through some miracle he did have data that conclusively proved 75% of the time it was better to build a monolith. This might suggest you should more seriously consider building a monolith first, but still this doesn't make the decision for your project. You have to decide based on your project, teams, goals, and budget if a microservice is right for you. I think you're 100% right that it's the reception. Our industry is filled with people who take the practice of software as a matter of dogma. But we do that with everything, we'll turn any technique into a cult TDD, microservices, unit testing, immutability, functional programming, BDD, etc..
    - scintill76 5y ago
      If he provided the data you think he lacks, you could still complain about architects who didn’t apply “critical sense” to see whether their project’s data matched his projects’.
  - blub 5y ago
    I'd expect to see numbers: roughly how many projects he was using to draw his conclusions, how many people he talked to and general details about their level of experience and domain of activity. Additionally I'd be curious to read what the concrete consequences of the monolith vs. microservices decisions were for those projects in delays, budget overruns, personnel churn, etc. Finally I believe that the types of projects are highly relevant - industry, domain, budget and so on. I would need the above to make my mind precisely because I can't find any indication that Fowler is a technical expert. The fact that they're a SW book author that I can't attribute any well-known software to is a big red flag for me. Likewise that they've been working as a consultant for a very long time.

blub 5y ago

What's remarkable to me is that Fowler is telling an interesting story about a technical decision, includes an entertaining diagram, but in the end doesn't provide any proof either way. There's not a single piece of hard data in that article, not even how many of his colleagues are making the specific recommendation.

JamesBarney 5y ago
What proof would you expect him to bring? It's an article about his experience as a technical expert brought in to consult on many projects.
- routerl 5y ago
  > What proof would you expect him to bring? Data. Data about software projects. What bugs me most about Fowler is his reception, not his writing. If we take his writing in the spirit you've outlined (an experienced developer sharing his anecdotes), there's no problem. But that just isn't how he's seen in the industry. There is a whole class of developers who take his writings as gospel, without the critical sense to wonder whether Fowler's experience/insight actually matches the project at hand.
  - JamesBarney 5y ago
    What data? Each project is building a different product with a different team. Even if he had data like "Teams that use monoliths complete there projects 20% faster", it'd still be useless because of the confounds. But let imagine through some miracle he did have data that conclusively proved 75% of the time it was better to build a monolith. This might suggest you should more seriously consider building a monolith first, but still this doesn't make the decision for your project. You have to decide based on your project, teams, goals, and budget if a microservice is right for you. I think you're 100% right that it's the reception. Our industry is filled with people who take the practice of software as a matter of dogma. But we do that with everything, we'll turn any technique into a cult TDD, microservices, unit testing, immutability, functional programming, BDD, etc..
  - scintill76 5y ago
    If he provided the data you think he lacks, you could still complain about architects who didn’t apply “critical sense” to see whether their project’s data matched his projects’.
- blub 5y ago
  I'd expect to see numbers: roughly how many projects he was using to draw his conclusions, how many people he talked to and general details about their level of experience and domain of activity. Additionally I'd be curious to read what the concrete consequences of the monolith vs. microservices decisions were for those projects in delays, budget overruns, personnel churn, etc. Finally I believe that the types of projects are highly relevant - industry, domain, budget and so on. I would need the above to make my mind precisely because I can't find any indication that Fowler is a technical expert. The fact that they're a SW book author that I can't attribute any well-known software to is a big red flag for me. Likewise that they've been working as a consultant for a very long time.