If you work in financial technology, you know how important it is to ensure your software is scalable and reliable. You need to handle high volumes of transactions, sensitive data, and complex regulations without compromising performance, security, or user experience. How can you achieve this goal? Here are some best practices to follow.
The architecture of your software is key in determining its structure, organization, and connections. It will also influence how easy it is to scale, modify, and maintain your software. When selecting an architecture, you should consider the needs of your business, technical requirements, and budget. Three popular architectures for fintech software are monolithic, microservices, and serverless. Monolithic applications are large and tightly-coupled, making them simple to develop and deploy but hard to scale and update. Microservices are small and independent services that communicate through APIs; they are easy to scale and update but complex to develop and manage. Serverless models allow a third-party cloud provider to execute the application logic on demand; they are cost-effective and scalable but limited by the provider's capabilities and policies.
Sometimes the most recent architecture pattern is not the best because still not tested, but going for the following criterias can best design your architecture: 1. Secure 2. Efficient 3. Low-Maintenance
There are three areas I'm looking for right architecture; First, it must be secure from front-end to the back-end and at data at rest. Secondly, it must be clean and easy to maintain, the learning curve must not be too difficult, and lastly, third it must be optimized.
My personal favorite is serveless services such as lambda or faragate . And external no code services like cognito AWS . These services help the company focus on their core business and scale effortlessly
Monolithic architecture entails building large, tightly-coupled applications, simplifying development and deployment processes. However, it poses challenges in scalability and updates due to its integrated nature. Microservices architecture involves creating small, independent services that communicate via APIs. While this architecture offers ease of scalability and updates, it can be complex to develop and manage. Serverless models delegate the execution of application logic to a third-party cloud provider on-demand. While they are cost-effective and scalable, they are subject to the capabilities and policies of the provider.
It will always depend on the size of the development team and the scope of the project. Monolitic architecture might be suitable for small projects/teams, "monolitic" shouldn't judge be as a bad choice per se. If the project is created and is maintained following good design practices it shouldn't matter! Microservices can be considered for bigger projects and crowded teams, where each team can be responsible for 1,2,... microservices. The scope of the project can be handle by separating the services in different features/responsabilities that can be easily scaled and mantained. Serverless can be a choice for small/no teams at all and when a cloud provider offers a suitable cost-benefit solution (or at least a part of it) for the proj.
DevOps is a set of practices that seeks to improve collaboration and efficiency between development and operations teams. It concentrates on automating and streamlining the processes of software delivery and deployment, such as testing, integration, monitoring, and feedback. By implementing DevOps practices, you can reduce errors and bugs, accelerate delivery and deployment, enhance performance and security, and increase customer satisfaction. To help you implement DevOps practices, consider utilizing continuous integration (CI), continuous delivery (CD), continuous deployment (CD), infrastructure as code (IaC), and monitoring and logging. CI involves merging code changes into a shared repository frequently with automated tests to ensure quality; CD is where code changes are automatically built, tested, and prepared for deployment; CD is where code changes are automatically deployed to production; IaC is where the configuration and provisioning of servers, networks, and other resources are defined and managed as code; monitoring and logging is where the performance, availability, and security of the software and the infrastructure are tracked and recorded.
Based on my understanding, DevOps is a holistic approach aimed at fostering collaboration and efficiency between development and operations teams throughout the software development lifecycle. It emphasizes the automation and streamlining of various processes, including software delivery, deployment, testing, integration, monitoring, and feedback. By implementing DevOps practices, organizations can achieve several benefits, including the reduction of errors and bugs, acceleration of delivery and deployment cycles, enhancement of performance and security, and ultimately, increased customer satisfaction.
Agile methodologies are a set of principles and practices that aim to deliver software in an iterative and incremental way. By breaking down the software into small and manageable units, called user stories, that can be delivered in short cycles, called sprints, you can adapt to changing requirements and feedback by prioritizing and delivering the most valuable features first. Additionally, agile methodologies can improve quality and innovation by encouraging collaboration, experimentation, and learning. Furthermore, they can reduce risk and waste by avoiding over-engineering and delivering working software frequently. Moreover, they can increase transparency and accountability by involving stakeholders and customers in the development process.
To help you adopt agile methodologies, there are several frameworks and techniques available. For example, Scrum is a framework where a cross-functional team works on a set of user stories in fixed-length sprints, guided by a product owner and a scrum master. The team holds daily meetings, called stand-ups, to coordinate their work and resolve issues. They also conduct reviews and retrospectives at the end of each sprint to evaluate the results and improve the process. Kanban is another technique where the team visualizes their workflow using a board with columns representing different stages. The team limits the number of work items in each column to avoid overload and optimize flow. They also measure and improve their performance using metrics, such as cycle time and throughput. Lastly, Lean is a philosophy that focuses on eliminating waste and maximizing value for customers. The team applies the principles of build-measure-learn, building a minimum viable product (MVP), measuring its impact, and learning from the feedback. They also apply the concept of kaizen which means continuous improvement.
To facilitate the adoption of Agile methodologies, various frameworks and techniques are available. For instance, Scrum provides a structured framework where cross-functional teams work on user stories in fixed-length sprints under the guidance of a product owner and scrum master. Daily stand-ups, reviews, and retrospectives are integral to Scrum, enabling continuous improvement and alignment with project goals. Similarly, Kanban offers a visual workflow management technique where teams visualize their work stages using a board with columns representing different stages. By limiting work items in each column and measuring performance using metrics like cycle time and throughput, teams can optimize workflow efficiency .
Cloud services, which are delivered and consumed over the internet, can help you scale and optimize your software. You can access and adjust the amount of computing power, storage, and bandwidth you need on demand, without investing in hardware or infrastructure. The redundancy, backup, and recovery features of the cloud provider can ensure the availability and durability of your software and data. Additionally, the expertise, tools, and standards of the cloud provider can protect your software and data from unauthorized access, breaches, and attacks. Lastly, you can pay only for the resources you use, without incurring upfront or maintenance costs. Examples of cloud services include Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP); Platform as a Service (PaaS), such as Heroku, AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and Google App Engine; and Software as a Service (SaaS), such as Salesforce, Dropbox, and Gmail.
Additionally, the expertise, tools, and security standards of cloud providers play a crucial role in safeguarding software and data against unauthorized access, breaches, and cyberattacks. By leveraging these resources, organizations can benefit from robust security measures without the burden of managing them internally. Moreover, the pay-as-you-go pricing model of cloud services allows users to pay only for the resources they consume, eliminating upfront or maintenance costs and providing cost-effective scalability.
By using cloud services you can provision, escalate and grow your infrastructure with ease. You can also implement security measures, data redundancy and high availability. But remember that all comes with a cost. A good cost management is very recommendable.
Coding standards are a set of rules and guidelines that define how to write, format, and document your code. They can help you create reliable software by improving readability and maintainability, reducing errors and bugs, enhancing compatibility and interoperability, and facilitating collaboration. Examples of coding standards include official documentation and style guides of the languages, frameworks, and platforms you use, industry-recognized best practices and recommendations, as well as customized rules and preferences that suit your team and project. By following these standards, you can make sure that your code is consistent, clear, and easy to understand.
Examples of coding standards include official documentation and style guides provided by programming languages, frameworks, and platforms, as well as industry-recognized best practices and recommendations. Moreover, teams often establish customized coding standards tailored to their specific preferences and project requirements. By following these standards consistently, developers can ensure that their code is clear, consistent, and easy to understand, facilitating collaboration and long-term maintenance efforts.
Each Dev team should choose and adopt its own code formatting, line indenting, variable/function naming and more (following the standards)… and keep it through time and team members , so that anyone can understand and mantain the code. Also, it’s important to document each function, api endpoint or any peace of code with important business logic. Finally, do not create functions with lots of lines, classes with many methods, remember to use good design practices (SOLID, KISS).