When Every Change Was Urgent-And Architecture Became a Bottleneck
Article summary
In the second half of 2018, the delivery pace picked up. Product wanted experiments. Sales wanted demos. Ops wanted compliance changes. And everyone wanted them yesterday. We weren’t slow. We shipped every week. But it never felt stable. That’s when it hit us: the code wasn’t the bottleneck-our architecture was. How Velocity Collided with Structure 1. Tightly Coupled Services Amplified Every Change A minor change to pricing logic broke quote generation. A dashboard fix cascaded into customer support tools. Each change triggered more side effects than expected-because: Shared data contracts weren’t versioned Downstream calls weren’t isolated Code reuse blurred boundaries 2. Our Ownership Model Didn’t Scale Some services were shared by five teams. Others had no owners.
Read Full Article on MediumPractical takeaway
The main idea behind When Every Change Was Urgent-And Architecture Became a Bottleneck is to help teams move from broad theory to clear, repeatable decision making. When teams apply this thinking, they reduce ambiguity and focus on improvements that deliver measurable momentum.
Example scenario
Imagine a team facing competing priorities. By applying the ideas in When Every Change Was Urgent-And Architecture Became a Bottleneck, they can map dependencies, identify risks and choose the next move that produces progress without destabilizing their system.
Common mistakes to avoid
- Trying to redesign everything instead of taking small steps.
- Ignoring real constraints like incentives, ownership or legacy systems.
- Creating documents that do not lead to any change in code or decisions.
How to apply this in real work
Start by identifying where When Every Change Was Urgent-And Architecture Became a Bottleneck already shows up in your architecture or delivery flow. Then pick one area where clarity would reduce friction. Apply the idea, measure its effect and share the learning.
Signs you are doing it correctly
- Teams make decisions faster and with fewer disagreements.
- Architectural conversations become clearer and less abstract.
- Changes land safely with fewer surprises or rework cycles.