Software Architecture : the Hard PartsNeal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage, Zhamak Dehghani
Software Architecture : the Hard Parts
by Neal Ford, Mark Richards, Pramod Sadalage, Zhamak Dehghani · first published 2021
9mentions
5recommended by
8HN commenters
2021–2025first – last mentioned
56% recommend22% neutral22% critical
Why HN recommends it
Covers trade-offs in distributed architecture: splitting or combining services, sync vs async, eventual vs atomic consistency, and orchestration vs choreography. Suits engineers moving past monoliths.
Common criticism: Critics say it lays out options and trade-offs rather than giving definitive answers
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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Software Architecture: the Hard Parts https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/software-architecture-t...
on “Ask HN: What are the best tech books you read in 2021?” ↗You might like "Software Architecture: The Hard Parts." Though you already describe some of the points of the book. There isn't a magic bullet and every decision to split something apart or which parts to combine has various trade-offs. The book isn't perfect.…
on “The costs of microservices (2020)” ↗I really enjoyed: Software Architecture, The Hard Parts. https://www.oreilly.com/library/view/software-architecture-t... One part it discusses is in fact communication patterns along the dimensions of: - sync/async - atomic/eventual consistent - orechestrated/choreographed
on “Ask HN: What are good books on SW architecture that don't sell microservices?” ↗…about choosing the least worst option for a data domain. We are in the cloud era, which is by its nature distributed. The era of vertically scaled monoliths is mostly over for most people. The book 'Software Architecture: The Hard Parts' is probably a path forward for you, but any books on modern data architecture would be. Hint: even your ATM card doesn't use ACID, and many needs can improve performance, availability and resilience…
on “MongoDB takes a swing at PostgreSQL after claiming wins against rival” ↗…looking for ideological prescriptions: don't. Give yourself time. Let yourself fail and learn from your mistakes. Keep reading the masters work like Clean Code, SICP, Working effectively with legacy code, software architecture the hard parts, mythical man month etc... but don't let anyone prescribe to you how to do your job. Developing is ultimately managing an unmanageable and ever evolving complexity and making it work. Developing is art…
on “Developer Philosophy” ↗I recently read the book "Software Architecture: The Hard Parts" by Neal Ford, Mark, Richards, Pramod Sadalage & Zhamak Dehghani, and this is my review of the book.
on “What I learned from the book Software Architecture: The Hard Parts” ↗…- Fundamentals of Software Architecture - Learning Domain-Driven Design - Mastering API Architecture - Microservices Up and Running - Monolith to Microservices - Software Architecture Metrics - Software Architecture: The Hard Parts - The Art of Agile Development - The Software Architect Elevator
on “Humble Tech Book Bundle: Software Architecture by O'Reilly” ↗Sure, there are books like Software Architecture the hard parts and even the well architected framework from AWS but they only indicate possible ways to investigate problem domains, design solutions and test and validate implementations, but it's all context dependent
on “Copying is the way design works (2020)” ↗> The book 'Software Architecture: The Hard Parts' is probably a path forward for you, but any books on modern data architecture would be. I'll send you some books to read, too. > Hint: even your ATM card doesn't use ACID I guarantee you that the…
on “MongoDB takes a swing at PostgreSQL after claiming wins against rival” ↗