Architecture as code - fitness functions and the role of architecture, and architects, in a world of constant change

1. Architecture as Code
Objective Measures of Value in a Changing World
Paula Paul & Cassie Shum
O’Reilly Software Architecture Conference, June 2019
1

2. Paula Paul
@paulapaultweets
Thoughtworks
Technology Principal
Cassie Shum
@cassiend
Thoughtworks
Technology Principal
2

3. “Software is Eating the
World”
3
Marc Andreessen - WSJ/August 2011

4. 4
Business
Process
Automation

5. 5
Hardware
Automation

6. 6
Is
Automation
Eating the
World?
...or just our
time

7. 7
Why? Predictable
Repeatable
Measureable
Value

8. Business Processes as Code
Infrastructure as Code
8
… as Code

9. 9
Architecture

10. Architecture
1
0

11. 11
“Architecture represents
the significant design
decisions that shape a
system, where significant is
measured by cost of
change.”-- Grady Booch, blog post, March 2nd, 2006

13. 13`
Developer effectiveness Deployment reliability Operational resilience
Automated development environment setup
Automated provisioning
/ extraction of test data
Various levels of
automated test suites Infrastructure as code
Independently-deployable
units
Centralized host &
application-level
monitoring
Metrics dashboards &
information radiators
Centralized logging Distributed tracing
Automated functionality
test suites
Automated security tests
Performance &
resiliency tests
Correlation ID Synthetic transactions
* Not exhaustive
Continuous Delivery pipeline
Architectural Concerns

14. Copyright © 2019 ThoughtWorks, Inc. Private and Confidential. 14
DEVELOPER
EFFECTIVENESS
DEPLOYMENT
RELIABILITY
OPERATIONAL
RESILIENCE
Time to first check-in
2 months to 2
days
Check-in to production-ready
cycle time
4 weeks to 1 hour
Time validate code change in
local env or test
5 mins to 15-5 secs
Change Failure Rate
20% to 1%
Mean time between failures
1 day to 6 months
Mean time to recovery
12 hours to 10
mins
Architectural Metrics

15. Copyright © 2019 ThoughtWorks, Inc. Private and Confidential. 15
DEVELOPER
EFFECTIVENESS
DEPLOYMENT
RELIABILITY
OPERATIONAL
RESILIENCE
Automated Developer Env Setup
Automated provisioning / extraction of test
data
Various levels of automated test suites
Continuous Delivery
pipeline
Infrastructure as
code
Independently-
deployable units
Automated
functionality test suites
Automated security
tests
Performance &
resiliency tests
Centralized host &
application-level
monitoring
Centralized logging Distributed tracing
Metrics dashboards &
information radiators
Synthetic
transactions
Correlation ID
Architectural Techniques

16. 16

17. 17
https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/fitness-function-driven-
development
Architectural
Automation?

18. Copyright © 2019 ThoughtWorks, Inc. Private and Confidential. 18
Prioritized, Objective Metrics
architectural
fitness functions
1. Security
0 high vulnerabilities
2. Resiliency
less than 1% error rate for new
deployment
3. Auditability
less than 90 days since last audit

19. Copyright © 2019 ThoughtWorks, Inc. Private and Confidential. 19
Security

20. Copyright © 2019 ThoughtWorks, Inc. Private and Confidential. 20
Resilency

21. 21https://www.thoughtworks.com/insights/blog/fitness-function-driven-

22. Copyright © 2019 ThoughtWorks, Inc. Private and Confidential. 22
Auditability

23. Architecture as code
What have we learned?
2
3

24. 24
Guardrails
avoid tech debt

25. Effort
Pain
Frequently
Regenerati
ng AWS
Tokens
Spark Unit
testing scala
code is slow in
CI
Spark Unit
testing scala
code is slow
locally
Case Classes for
Oracle Tables
have many
fields, difficult
to navigate --
Maintenance
Database
"differ" tool
Code
Compilation
time for Scala
Code
Local end-to-end
development
environment on
developers local
machine
- Kafka
Local end-to-
end
development
environment on
developers local
machine
- Spark
Can we use an off-
the-shelf ORM/FRM
compared to TW
developed solution?
Create separate
connector for
reports, use
unified
connector in CI
(remove test
topics)
Connectivity issues to
Oracle DB (unknown
source) -- PROD Risk
(scheduled stories for
performance testing)
Automate
secret
creation
Jenkins
Crashes often
because of
resource
constraints
Local end-to-
end
development
environment on
developers
local machine
- S3

26. 26
Guardrails
must be flexible

27. 27
Guardrails
need maintenance

28. 28
Deploy
Release
Product
Management
Go to Market
Pivot or Persevere
Code Monitor
Ops
Backlog
Ticket
Product
Support
Build, Run, Own Teams
Self-service operation
Release strategy
Infrastructure as code
Container and virtualization
Continuous monitoring and
alarm Design for Failure
Continuous operational
feedback

29. 29
Guardrails
can help with legacy

30. 30
Guardrails
can help with legacy

31. 31
Guardrails belong
in build pipelines
(otherwise developers ignore them)

32. 32
Guardrails belong
in build pipelines
(otherwise developers ignore them)
Unit Build Secure Monito
r
Perform Promot
e
Test
Configuration
Check
Automation
Integration
Test
Fitness Tests
(can run async)
Production
Ready!
terraform
plan
terraform
apply
pytest
inspec-gcp
awspec
scout2
g-scout
pytest
locust
pumba

33. 33
What’s next?
Build vs.
Buy
Vendor Lock-
in
Fixed vs.
On-Demand
Capacity
Cost
Compliance
Vendor
Management
Global vs.
Regional
Evolvability Autonomy Complexity

34. Paula Paul
ppaul@thoughtworks.com
@paulapaultweets
Thank you!
Cassie Shum
cshum@thoughtworks.com
@cassiend
3
4

35. 3
5
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