Decide How Much to Design Up Front

Architecture is a necessary investment. Every software system has an architecture. One way or another, you will spend time designing it. If we spend time designing architecture up front, then we’ll reduce the cost of future rework. Of course, time spent planning architecture also delays implementation thus potentially delaying value for stakeholders. If we spend no time up front on architecture, then we are more likely to make changes to the architecture after developing parts of the software system.

Depending on the software system’s size and requirements variability, every software systems has a design sweet spot, an optimal amount of time to spend designing architecture before diving into implementation. ...

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