Balancing sociotechnical complexity in software architectures

When discussing architecture, things like microservices and the Reactive Manifesto come to mind. However, the culmination and success of technical choices is strongly determined by social context. Evelyn van Kelle and Pepijin van de Kamp explore the interplay of technical issues and the social aspects of working on a team, such as communication and shared understanding of assumptions and choices.

Software architecture is considered primarily a technical endeavor. It consists of designing the right structure and technical interactions for a system and then choosing the best technologies to get the job done right. But architectures are nothing more than paper models if they are not implemented into a system as intended. The culmination and success of technical choices is strongly determined by the social context in which they exist. Thus teams need to “listen” to the system and find out what it’s telling them about the choices they made. Sure, measuring is knowing, but measurement is inseparable from communication and a shared understanding of choices, values, and assumptions among team members within an organization. Evelyn van Kelle and Pepijin van de Kamp explore the interplay between technical issues and the social aspects of working on a team, addressing the major communication challenges around combining effective measurement and software architecture into a cohesive working system. You’ll learn how to make architectural decisions within a team-based environment and how to measure, interpret, and act on the actual characteristics of the implemented architecture. You’ll leave understanding why teams need to balance technical and social skills to design and implement the best software architecture for their organization.