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Architecture

Domain Events Are NOT Your Public API

You finally did it. You stopped publishing CRUD events and started broadcasting domain events. Instead of publishing ShipmentStatusChanged, ShipmentUpdated, or EstimatedDeliveryDateChanged, you started publishing more meaningful domain events like DeliveryAttemptFailed, ETARecalculated, and ShipmentDelayed. And apparently that was supposed to be better, right? Wrong. YouTube Check out my YouTube channel, where I post all kinds of content on Software Architecture & Design, including this video showing everything in this post. You’re publishing domain events now rather than CRUD events. But you still feel all the pain when you need to change one of those events. You’re breaking consumers, sometimes consumers you didn’t even… Read More »Domain Events Are NOT Your Public API

Decoupling in Software Architecture Moves Complexity

What happens when someone clicks the Place Order button? To the end user, it is pretty simple. It is a button click. But in a large system, there can be a lot going on behind that button. We have to save the order, record the payment, charge the customer’s credit card, reserve inventory, send a confirmation email, and maybe record loyalty points. There may also be analytics, recommendations, or other processes that react to the order. Because there are so many things happening, there are also a lot of things that can go wrong. We are often told that decoupling… Read More »Decoupling in Software Architecture Moves Complexity

Resilience Patterns Can Make Your System Less Resilient

You wanted your system to be resilient, so you followed the standard advice. You added retries.You added circuit breakers.You added fallbacks. But now your system is less resilient. Not because those patterns are bad. They are not. The problem is they are doing exactly what you told them to do. YouTube Check out my YouTube channel, where I post all kinds of content on Software Architecture & Design, including this video showing everything in this post. Retries are great for network blips and transient issues. But the tradeoff is that you are adding more load to a system that might already be… Read More »Resilience Patterns Can Make Your System Less Resilient