What are architecture patterns and styles for solution design?

Architectural patterns are the elegant dance steps in the choreography of solution design. Think of them not as blueprints but as the poetic rhythms guiding your architectural symphony. Envision patterns as the storytellers weaving tales of structure and efficiency. This isn't just design; it's a narrative where every pattern crafts a unique chapter, enriching the collective storyline of your architectural masterpiece. So, as you compose your design opus, let these patterns be the literary devices, adding depth and coherence to the epic tale of your solution's architectural brilliance.

The significance of architectural patterns cannot be overstated. When it comes to crafting a solution and shaping the architectural landscape, my utmost priority lies in establishing a resilient, scalable, and agile architecture. These qualities are pivotal in fortifying the architecture and ensuring its readiness for the future. Architectural patterns serve as tried-and-true solutions to common design challenges encountered within specific domains, scenarios, or contexts. They furnish a high-level abstraction of the system's structure, behaviour, and characteristics, while also offering guidance in the selection and integration of components, connectors, and configurations.

Some additional thoughts on the benefits of using architecture patterns: Increased efficiency: Architecture patterns (AP's) can help to increase the efficiency of the design process by providing a common vocabulary and set of best practices. This can lead to faster development times and lower costs. Improved quality: They can help to improve the quality of the design by providing a framework for ensuring that the system is well-structured and scalable. This can lead to fewer defects and a more reliable system. Increased flexibility: AP's can help to increase the flexibility of the design by providing a way to adapt the system to changing requirements. This can help to ensure that the system can meet the needs of the business as it evolves.

In my work with global enterprise companies, I have learned that architecture patterns are designed to solve specific problems more efficiently in various ways. The usefulness of each architecture pattern depends on the use cases it suits and the long-term value it can provide. For example, shoes for the legs are inversely proportional to the kind of activity performed. There is no 'one size or kind fits all' solution.

Different Architecture patterns are used depending on the complexity of the business functions. These patterns range from Layered (n-tiered) architecture for complex enterprise patterns. Simpler options include, Client-server, Event driven patterns etc. Currently the popular enterprise architectures are based on a layered architecture model where there is an interface layer consisting of API Gateways and Web interfaces, a services layer built on microservices and a DB layer for storing the data required in the applications. There may be other patterns included in these layers such as microservices, event driven architectures, message bus architectures etc. This layered architecture will accommodate today's enterprise challenges

An architectural style is more than just a set of principles, rules and constraints. Each architectural style is a specialized form of technology architecture that is defined primarily by a set of goals we aim to realize by investing in that architecture style. These may be technical and/or business goals, they may be tactical and/or strategic goals. When we choose a specific style of architecture for a given solution, we do so with certain objectives and expectations in mind. We author principles, rules and constrains (and patterns) to support those objectives, but what truly defines an architecture style is the target state that it represents, which is a solution with specific characteristics that help realize those objectives.

An additional consideration is the purpose the architecture intends to serves. In other words, is the architecture supporting alignment across the enterprise, commerce, analytics, data science, and/or something else.

Architecture styles encompass principles, rules, and constraints defining the characteristics and qualities of a system or a family of systems. These styles shape architecture patterns and reflect the trade-offs and decisions made by architects. Examples include RESTful, service-oriented, monolithic, and n-tier architectures.

In my experience it totals depends on what is the overall goal. Whatever architecture you choose has to be decided on the size of implementation.REST serves the purpose of distributed n tier applications which can be developed collaboratively. REST scales in all respects.Monolithic does not scale very well and have lot of maintenance issues . Service oriented is a design pattern can be implemented using API. SOA has coupling issue micro services are decoupled and modern approach . Micro offers faster time to market, devops friendly,scalable , agile, improve security and offers recovery from single point of failure.

The Architecture styles section concisely explains these fundamental design principles. It defines architecture styles as rule sets shaping system characteristics, highlighting their influence on architecture patterns. Examples like RESTful, service-oriented, monolithic, and n-tier provide clarity. To enrich this section, consider elaborating on each style's characteristics and practical application. Expanding on the unique characteristics and attributes of each architecture style would provide readers with deeper insights into their practical implications and use cases. Offering real-world case studies or examples of systems that have successfully employed these architecture styles would illustrate their practical relevance and benefits.

Employing patterns and styles in your designs contributes to creating solutions that are consistent, coherent, reliable, scalable, maintainable, and adaptable. These design elements also aid in communicating your decisions and rationale to stakeholders, developers, and fellow architects. They facilitate the evaluation and comparison of alternative solutions. Moreover, patterns and styles enable you to leverage existing knowledge, experience, and best practices within the architecture community, helping you avoid reinventing the wheel.

In my opinion the real benefit of architecture is felt in all along the project lifecycle and post rollout too. Long term benefits can be felt w.r.t lessons learnt and avoid repeating the mistakes. smart cache at all levels ,logging feature , the devops embedded in the system. deployment design, underlying n/w design,storage,backup and db policies. Everything has to be well though about. Industry has moved to low code or no code approach thereby bringing IT needs closer to layman , in more accessible and cost effective ways. The browsers based or cloud based devops has further cistern infrastructure cost heavily. The architecture build and flows and article based can leverage AI platforms in many ways to predict application in many ways.

The design elements mention in the section should also leverage the collective wisdom of the architecture community and prevent reinventing the wheel. To enhance their relevance in the modern landscape, integrating cutting-edge concepts like AI and machine learning can make patterns and styles smarter, more efficient, and future-ready. Embracing these technologies ensures solutions remain competitive and adaptable in today's dynamic environment. Patterns and styles serve as a foundation for architects to harness collective knowledge, fostering innovation and efficiency. In an interconnected world, collaboration and shared experiences are invaluable, making these design principles essential for effective solution design.

One unmentioned benefit is that Patterns and Styles (at architecture level) drive the organization of the team project during its execution, this helps to have developers organized not only by functional features but by crosscutting architectural concerns. In addition, in the long term, (ease of) maintainability is a great benefit for the product.

Real challenges of patterns are the coupling of components and can lead to issues in release/build cycles and often complicate the system from maintenance perspective. Separation of concern to keep them decoupled. Start what are your functional vs non functional requirements and then start designing the system accordingly. Often the concerns get complicated when we prioritize functional requirements with non functional ones.

Adaptation of System architecture to evolve and accommodate changes in response to shift of requirements, technology advancements and other external factors is the key challenge, to achieve this Architecture should be Modular, flexible and automated. It's not only about technical considerations it should consider organizational and cultural aspects as well. Hence flexibility to embrace the change as opportunity to evolve the architecture must be there.

Some actionable suggestions are: Simplify Complexity: Mitigate complexity by selecting patterns and styles that align closely with your project's requirements. Avoid over-engineering. Educate and Train: Invest in educating your team about the chosen patterns and styles to minimize misuse or misunderstanding. Stay Current: Regularly update patterns and styles to ensure they align with evolving technologies and standards. Embrace innovation. Customization: Tailor patterns to fit your specific needs, preventing unnecessary overhead and dependencies. Evaluate Continuously: Periodically assess the effectiveness of chosen patterns and styles throughout the project lifecycle.

Design the system on behavioral, structural, creational patterns for the problem domain and stakeholder's need along with keeping in mind the anti-patterns in each one of them. We need strong Seperation of concern overall architecture.

You can follow these practical steps and criteria for selecting the right patterns and styles for your solution design: Problem Domain Analysis: Start by thoroughly understanding your problem domain, stakeholder needs, system goals, and desired quality attributes. Pattern Evaluation: Identify and assess available patterns and styles that align with your problem domain, goals, and quality attributes. Comparison and Analysis: Analyze each pattern's benefits, drawbacks, trade-offs, and implications. Choose the one that best suits your context and constraints. Application and Validation: Apply and adapt the chosen pattern and style to your specific solution design. Validate and verify its suitability and effectiveness.

Keep in mind that each pattern and style comes with its own set of trade-offs. It's crucial to focus on why you choose a particular pattern rather than just on how to implement it

Architectural podcasts are the best way to learn latest developments and trends in software architecture. Online communities, blogs, forums on platforms like Medium are excellent sources. Netflix, Spotify Tech blogs are other good sources.

Considerations based on need if its B2B,B2C or low latency high availability designs targeting modern platforms(mobile or browser). Design what can be headless request vs full request. Isolate each layer from manageability perspective. Employ scalable middleware to route request/response (static(CDN)/dynamic) .AWS cloudfront, AWS Route53, Lambda functions to spin jobs/resources as needed.

You should consider a section explaining more common Non Functional requirements and how to gather and analyze them in order to choose the selection of one or more Architectural Style or Pattern. Many people don't pay enough attention to this important aspect, many systems didn't identify their Non Functional Requirement and the results are very catastrophic.