How do you evaluate and communicate the trade-offs of different architectural choices?

1 What is SDLC?

SDLC is a framework that defines the stages and activities involved in developing, testing, deploying, and maintaining software. It helps to ensure that the software meets the requirements, quality standards, and expectations of the stakeholders. There are different models of SDLC, such as waterfall, agile, iterative, spiral, and DevOps, each with its own advantages and disadvantages.

3 What are the challenges and trade-offs of design and architecture?

Design and architecture are not static or fixed; they evolve and change throughout the SDLC, depending on the feedback, changes, and constraints that arise along the way. Common challenges and trade-offs of design and architecture include complexity, flexibility, performance, scalability, and security. Complexity can lead to confusion, errors, delays, and inefficiencies, so it is important to apply principles and practices that reduce and manage complexity. Flexibility can be achieved by using techniques such as loose coupling, open-closed principle, dependency inversion, interface segregation, and polymorphism. Performance can be improved by using techniques such as caching, concurrency, parallelism, load balancing, and compression. Scalability can be achieved by using techniques such as horizontal and vertical scaling, microservices, cloud computing, and distributed systems. Security can be enhanced by using techniques such as encryption, authentication, authorization, auditing, logging, and testing.

4 How do you evaluate and communicate the trade-offs of design and architecture?

Design and architecture are not about finding the perfect or optimal solution, but rather the best or most suitable solution for the given context, goals, and constraints. To evaluate and communicate the trade-offs of design and architecture, a systematic and collaborative approach is necessary. This includes defining criteria and metrics, identifying and analyzing options, comparing and ranking options, and selecting and justifying the option. The criteria and metrics should be clear, measurable, and relevant to the problem and stakeholders. Options should be realistic, feasible, and aligned with the project’s vision and strategy. The comparison and ranking should be objective, transparent, and consistent. Finally, the selection and justification should be clear, concise, and convincing.

5 How do you document and communicate the design and architecture?

Once the design and architecture decision is made, it is important to document and communicate it effectively, to ensure that the software is developed, tested, deployed, and maintained according to the plan and the standards. Documenting and communicating the design and architecture involves creating the design and architecture artifacts that capture and describe the software, such as diagrams, models, specifications, and guidelines. It is also important to review and validate the artifacts to ensure they are correct, clear, and understandable. Publishing and distributing the artifacts to the intended audience, such as developers, testers, managers, and customers, is also necessary. Finally, maintaining and updating the artifacts to reflect changes and modifications throughout the SDLC is essential to keep them aligned with the current state and version of the software.