Choosing the Right Software Architecture Pattern for Development

Flaws in software can have a great impact on the business of any organization. The prime reason for any kind of software failure can be the selection of the wrong software architecture pattern. 

Choosing widely popular or trending technologies in the market doesn’t always mean that it would miraculously deliver the best results.  However, if you select one that fits your software requirements, you are more likely to succeed in both addressing and resolving your existing and recurring issues.

Quite often, it is observed that without a formal architecture in place, the process of application development is started. Due to the absence of a clear architecture pattern, development resorts to traditional patterns. Eventually, we end up with the code that lacks basic clear roles, responsibilities, and relationships with one another, i.e. unorganized code. 

The importance of software architecture patterns

Software architecture patterns carry a lot of importance as they are the solution for various problems within multiple domains. Here are just some of the examples of having good software architecture for your development process.

Complex user requests can be easily segregated into smaller chunks and distributed across various servers to get the work done quickly, instead of depending on a single server and increasing the load time.

The simplification of complex testing protocols to make the testing process easy for developers in various segments of the software rather than testing a whole piece of code.

Having software architecture patterns also helps in:

• Defining the Basic Characteristics of an Application
• Maintaining quality and efficiency
• Provide Agility
• Problem Solving
• Enhancing Productivity

Different types of Software Architecture Patterns

Before starting a software development, it’s better to choose a suitable architecture pattern offering desired functionality and various quality attributes. 

Layered Architecture Pattern

Use Cases

• Applications built with less time for development
• Enterprise applications requiring to adopt traditional IT departments and process
• Teams having inexperienced developers 
• Applications requiring strict standards of maintainability and testability

Shortcomings

• If the source code is unorganized and modules don’t have clear roles, it can turn into a big disaster
• Skipping previous layers to create tight coupling leads to the production of logical mess full of complex interdependencies
• Small modifications require a complete redeployment of the application.

Event-driven Architecture

Use Cases

• Useful for applications where individual data blocks interact with only a few modules 

Shortcomings

• Testing individual modules can be done only if they are independent, or they need to be tested in a fully functional system. 
• Error handling becomes very difficult to structure
• Development of a system-wide data structure for events can become complex if the events have different needs
• Maintaining a transaction based mechanism for consistency becomes difficult.

Microkernel Architecture

Use Cases

• Applications having a clear segmentation between basic routines and higher-order rules
• Applications having a fixed set of core routines and a dynamic set of rule needing frequent updates

Shortcomings

• The plugins must have a good handshaking code so that the microkernel is aware of the plugin installation and is ready to work
• Changing a microkernel is very difficult or even impossible if there are multiple plugins dependent on it. 
• Difficult to choose the right granularity for the kernel function in advance, and even more difficult to change it in the later stage.

Microservices Architecture Pattern

Use Cases

• Businesses and web applications requiring rapid development
• Websites having small components, data centers with well-defined boundaries, and teams that are spread across the globe. 

Shortcomings

• Designing the right level of granularity for a service component is a big challenge.
• All the applications don’t include tasks which can be split into independent units
• Tasks spread between different microservices can have a negative effect on performance.

Space-Based Architecture

Use Cases

• Applications and software systems working under a heavy load of users.
• Applications with the need to address scalability and concurrency issues.

Shortcomings

It is difficult to develop the skills to cache the data for speed without disturbing multiple copies. 

Conclusion

There is not a single perfect software architecture pattern currently in the globe. All you can do is study the use cases, advantages and disadvantages of each and try to weigh in the pros and cons. 

Choosing the one for your development process can be a bit tricky, but if you address your pain points and what you actually need in the present or future as a priority, the process of choosing can be simplified. If you need any help with this, please feel free to consult us.