Mastering Software Architecture Documentation: 4 Techniques You Need to Know

have you ever asked yourself how to strike a balance between having enough design up front while also maintaining a lean mindset and enabling continuous evolution of systems across different function of tech department how often did you find yourself in the annoying situation of steering the wheel towards a completely different direction for delivering a new feature due to lack of clarity of what to express inside your code fear not because this video is going to provide you the answers to all those questions I want to share with you stories From The Trenches techniques and Mechanics for finally cracking the code and getting enough documentation to succeed in your software project are you ready let's dive in hi everyone my name is Luca I'm an architect super passionate about software AR ecture and the intricacies of its social technical aspect I spent over 20 years of my career working from embedded or low-end devices to Global distributed system in the cloud and now I'm principal Ser specialist in AWS where are we oh yes documentation documentation plays a critical role in the software development process especially in distributed system such as microservices micro front ends data mesh documenting software architecture es helps to align teams scale businesses and Empower developers many people think architecture is just a technical topic it's definitely not just a technical topic keep in mind that a Le mindset is essential here we need to have enough design upfront to start our development process and we should maintain our diagrams to democratize the evolution of a system across every function of your tech department too often I have experienced teams not fully understanding what they have to build rushing to create the proof of concept that nail down the complexity of a technical part only halfway through the process realizing that they forgot a key detail that now requires a greater effort than designing the project with that in mind up front it's time to change our habits and dedicate enough time in designing upfront enough architecture that will allow us to move forward our projects I don't want to overwhelm you with thousands of techniques but just the ones I have seen more successfully applied in many organization that have broad benefits in the development of software across multiple teams during this video I'm going to introduce you to several techniques architectural decision records request for comments event storming and the C4 model at the end of this video you you will have a solid understanding of each method and be well equipped to start changing the way you model and deliver software why documentation matters software modeling at the beginning of the project is a fundamental step that too often is ignore or teams don't dedicate enough time to this practice this will accelerate drastically the development process because everyone has Clarity of intentions that doesn't mean we have to nail down every single detail up front but have just enough architecture to start the process the focus before coding should be nailing down the architecture characteristics and business characteristics this share understanding provides several benefits streaming line decision making simplifying onboarding for a new team facilitating collaboration between cross functional teams reducing potential misunderstanding ensuring consistent knowledge transfer now there is no denying the value of well-curated structure and update soft the documentation it's a must have nowadays and we cannot forgotten when every everyone inside the team understands the architecture they are aligned in their vision and objectives this alignment is what allows team to move along the same path regardless of their unique roles and responsibilities essentially we are talking about creating an unified perspective that helps all the stakeholders including developers project managers QA and even clients maintaining a consistent view of the architecture this alignment results in more stream align decision- making lowering the chances of costly missteps caused by miscommunication or misunderstandings alongside facilitating alignment soft documentation promotes the profound concept of asynchronous growth imagine your company decide to scale attracting new hiring or exploring new verticals when new members join the team how would you bring them up to speed with the software architecture this is where documentation comes in instead of relying of individual knowledge transfer which can be being consistent and time consuming well documented software architecture can provide an onboarding mechanism that is available 24/7 furthermore documentation is not just an invaluable resource for the present but also an investment for the future as the software evolves the documentation stands as Chronicle of the Project's Journey helping future teams understand why certain architectural decision were taken in summary if you want to streamline you your internal processes scale effectively and create a robust foundation for both the present and future growth of your organization you absolutely need to prioritize software architecture documentation before we start I want to spend a few words on another initiative that I started a few years ago it's a newsletter it's called The Architects it's a free newsletter where I collect weekly the articles I found most interesting and that can spark new ideas for you and your teams every newsletter can comes with five distinct resources on software architecture the content is a collection of great resources found on the web that Len your inbox every week I cover topics like generative AI distributive system design patterns observability migration and modernization Journeys case studies shared by well-known brands in the industry and way more if you are interested to know more click the link in the description and register now no advertising completely free joined the community composed by tens of thousand of members already we'll now dive into the details of VAR documentation techniques let's start with the ADR or architecture decision record is an effective approach to documenting architectural decisions made during the software development process it was first proposed by Michael neard to maintain an organized timeline of decisions providing context around the problems addressed the solution adopted and the reasons behind those choices an invaluable aspect of adrs lies in how they facilitate informed decision making in the future by summarizing choices in an accessible format adrs serve as a guide post around past decisions this understanding minimizes duplication and fosters consistency as developer can refer back to these decision when facing similar conds very often I have experienced new joiners that were asking why a certain decision was made and thanks to ADR I was able to immediately provide context and clear understandings and decid why certain things were happening ADR also improved project continuity as they offer a detailed understanding of why specific decisions were made this is crucial especially in large projects or organization where team members might change over time or are spread across the world having articulated reasoning and clear documentation ensures smoother trans Transitions and continual progress even with new team members on board adrs are comprehensive Beyond just recording the outcome of a decision adrs detail the context in which a decision was made and context in architecture is everything it also collects Alternatives considered during the process and potential consequences anticipated this holistic view helps developers to understand not just the what but also the why how and when of decisions fostering a more profound understanding of the Project's development path by openly documenting and sharing decision records it ensures that all stakeholders are on the same page this transparency bolsters trust facilitates collaboration and leads to more cohesive development efforts in conclusion ADR serve as a powerful tool for improving project management and decision making in software development I use adrs many times in my project even with customers I also ask multiple teams to write down important decisions on ADR bear in mind that you don't have to create an ADR for every single decision you make but the important one that impacts the direction of travel of a tech department is a mandatory for me for example imagine you are embarking a modernization journey and you have to Define at the beginning the guard R for the whole organization things like version control strategy observability communication between microservices security a specific pattern that you want to integrate with the third party system and so on these are great candidates for an architecture decision record there are several templates available to Define an ADR I provide a link in the description below so bear in mind there isn't just a single approach find the one that fits you better next up is the request for comments or RFC a comprehensive and effective communication process used to capture feedback suggestions or standardization around around a particular technology system or protocol the RFC process serve to improve the understanding and applicability of a concept through a widely accessible mechanism it enable experts developers and every other stakeholder for a project to contribute with their insights this in turn enhances the overall quality of a particular proposal or standard this collaborative approach allows for crucial refinements and optimization which would have been challenging to achieve Solly by the initial autor additionally rfc's help to promote discussion and consensus building within the community fostering a shared understanding around the subject matter the open nature of the RFC process not only encourages fresh perspective and innovative ideas but also provides valuable feedback for the author by embracing constructive criticism potential issues and alternative ideas rfc's can evolve into a more robust and comprehensive standards and protocols in fact in many open source projects you can propose new features via rfc's moreover as rfc's progress through discussion reviews and revision they serve as a reliable source of documentation and learning they document the rationale behind proposed solution keeping an historical record of the development process and the decision made along the way this information can be particularly useful for new team members or other professionals looking to gain Insight in specific Technologies or standards a great advantage of RFC is that the enables and asynchronous communication where everyone can join the conversation everyone is different there are introverts extroverts there is maybe a wrong day for a person and not everyone performs great during a meeting rfcs as an asynchronous mechanism to collect ideas and feedback bypass all these challenges because usually it's time boxed and allows every want to express their thoughts I've seen teams using RFC even to discuss API Evolution so all the consumers of an API can share their requirements and propose new ideas most of the time rfc's are stor the version of control system GitHub gitlab and similar so everyone in tech department has access and can contribute in summary the request for comments process enriches the understanding of Technology systems and protocols by engaging a wide array of experts feedback and fostering a collaborative approach to problem solving as these perspectives merge and evolve RFC became a powerful repository of knowledge also in this case I left a link to RFC template in the description below now let's move to another technique called even storming it's a powerful Workshop technique developed by Alberto brandolini aims to announce the understanding design and modeling of business domains by focusing on domain events which represents significant changes in the domain even storming serves as a visual and collaborative exploration that invites various stakeholders to work together in creating a common understanding of the business process I've joined several even storming session in the past and I can tell you that is unvaluable what you can get out of that one of the core strengths of even storming is that it Fosters a unified understanding by bringing together every participant from business experts to Developers even storming goes further by promoting a naturally collaborative Dynamic where every participant's Viewpoint is acknowledged and Incorporated in essence the process creates an environment where the intersection of ideas between different Minds Technical and non-technical crafts a share understanding of realities this is the perfect way to align the business requirements with the technical implementation very often I have seen people that forget that what we are coding is not just code is generating value for your customers for the people that are using your software this is a fundamental catch what goes in production is the understanding or misunderstanding of developers as well said by barolini having product people in the same room of developers removes the barriers of just thinking to the technical side and we can start to focus more on the business outcomes and focusing on your customers that's the key learning of this approach this methodology works perfectly with domain driven design or DDD as specifying key domain events can lead identifying DDD constructs such as Aggregates or bounded context these insights become pivotal when designing and implementing efficient software it starts with a broad exploration often called the big picture followed by more detailed exploration supporting a flexible and agile adoption of the in site extracted from the process finally even storming is a potent learning tool and a fast userfriendly way to model a domain be it a new project or an existing architecture require improvements even storming enables better Clarity with Effectiveness very often during an even storming session developers add opportunity to tweak a future and make it easier to implement reducing the friction with the product team and creating a Synergy within the extended team instead of creating OS between departments I use even storming for onboarding new developers in a team for clarifying how to evolve a specific domain and even to model complex features that touch multiple domains if not the entire system often people think it might be a waste of time after trying one or two days of event storming session I got customers telling me that these techniques did in two days what they were used to do in five months don't underestimate this approach because it's a must have in particular parts of the software for making sure that what is built is what the business expects and is delivered with clear objectives in mind and possibly on time in the video description I've added also a link about even storming if you want to Deep dive into the topic last but not least the C4 model created by softare architect Simon Brown is a powerful approach to visualizing and documenting a systems architecture it stands for for context container component and code and presents a multi-layered view of software architecture making more accessible of different stakeholders depending on their requirements the Simplicity of the C4 model makes it easy to understand and apply bringing a wealth of benefit to the software development process one key advantage of the C4 model is this layer structure allowing for a diverse understanding according to stakeholders needs for instance known technical stakeholders might I the context layer enough for understanding what they're looking for furthermore this model encourages to use of common language annotation reducing misinterpretation and fostering a shared understanding among team members it enables effective knowledge transfer across the team making it easier for new members to understand the software architecture from different point of view by visualizing complex systems the C4 model supports architectural design decisions it highlights potential issues dependencies or areas of improvements that might not have been as apparent in the code alone leading to well-informed decisions in conclusion the C4 model simplifies understanding of complex software systems by breaking them down into more manageable communicable components in my experience I've seen just one challenge with this model the fourth C code refers to the code diagram that tends to get out of date very quickly so watch out and make sure you your drying arms are up to date obviously this one is one of the many approaches but I believe it's one of the most pragmatic as you have seen I didn't provide you with just one technique but several of them you will discover how much impact good documentation has during the software development life cycle and when it happens I encourage you to write down your experience in the comments below investing time in software modeling is not a waste of time thanks to that you are going to have a comprehensive understanding of what you need to codify of translate into code and you will be able to reach your goal faster so happy documenting and see you in the next episode of my 50 cents

Channel: My 50 cents

Views: 31,214

Keywords: software architecture, documentation, ADR, RFC, event storming, C4 model, software development, best practices, architecture decision, system design, programming, software engineering, technology, design patterns, architectural patterns, software modeling, collaboration, team communication, project management, agile, diagrams, system components, version control, decision-making, decision history, architectural diagrams, software tools, project documentation

Id: 4iamsduwxvQ

Length: 18min 43sec (1123 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 08 2023