Xu Wei’s architecture class

For programmers who have been working for many years, future career development is nothing more than three options: technical expertise, transformation management, and promotion of architects. Becoming an excellent architect is the pursuit of most technical people.

If you want to build an architecture, it is far from enough to have a technology. The depth and breadth of knowledge will determine the architecture ability of an architect. And this knowledge, from the moment you step into the IT industry, or even earlier, should begin to reserve.

I have met many people who have been programmers for 7 or 8 years, and they are still at the stage of “code farmers”. The pace of work is usually too fast and it is difficult to have the opportunity to learn the architecture systematically, and no one teaches them. , I can only type code and become more and more passive.

Once you have “architectural thinking” and have your own overall view in your mind, it will play a huge role in career development and career promotion:

Improve your own right to speak within the organization , Gain the appreciation of leaders and the favor of customers;

Quickly grasp new knowledge, avoid falling into the vicious circle of frequent overtime, and gain more development opportunities;

See the essence through the problem and understand The deeper mechanism under the code can not only complete the plan quickly, but also be clear and focused;

Develop a scalable business plan that meets the needs of users, so as to firmly control the lifeline of the enterprise;

So, whether you are already an architect in the team or not, for any programmer, having architectural thinking will be the key to making you stand out.

But according to my observations at work, many people’s understanding of “architecture” is still stuck in the product manager’s demand, and the architect gives the implementation based on the product design, which is the so-called architecture design plan. One stage.

In my opinion, this is actually a misunderstanding. The architecture is about the entire project and the people who implement it, and it differs depending on the team’s capabilities.

At the same time, architecture is also about user needs. As architects, we not only need to know what the current user needs are, but also make reasonable predictions about the changes that may occur in the future.

So, if you want to grow into an excellent software architect, the key lies in four words: control the overall situation.

To control the overall situation is to have a clear picture of the system and rebuild the whole world in your own mind. Rather than being immersed in the implementation details of a certain technology, unless it affects your understanding of the world building process.

When you understand the context and bones of the world, you will feel completely different, because you have become the builder of the world.

And the essence of architecture, isn’t it just construction and creation?

As a technical person, there are probably several types of architecture-related books that I have come into contact with:

Architectural Thinking. It usually starts from some well-known architectural theories, such as the principle of opening and closing, the principle of single responsibility, and so on. The drawback is that it is over-theorized, and computer science belongs to the category of engineering technology in the final analysis, and should be practiced first.

Design pattern class. These types generally come into the local details of the architecture, and the ins and outs of each mode are not easy to understand. Even if you understand a specific model, it is difficult to learn and apply it flexibly.

Distributed system architecture design class. It usually starts from the common problems of the server, such as consistency, high availability, and high concurrency challenges, and explains the challenges faced by large-scale business systems. Although this knowledge is very valuable, it cannot be extended to general business architecture and has no real guiding significance for the architecture practice of most enterprises.

Refactoring class. It mainly talks about how to improve the code, which is actually the most practical category. But in my opinion, the initial foundation of a module is the most important thing. It basically determines how long the building can last. Reconstruction focuses more on how to repair the building on the premise of serving people. Extend life.

These architecture books did not meet my personal expectations. In my opinion, they did not reveal the full picture of architecture design.

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In the column, I will build the entire information world from scratch by understanding the macro perspective of software architecture. In this process, I will explain the architecture. Thinking paradigm, and the application of these paradigms in daily engineering practice.

In terms of content design, I hope this is an architecture design column with the lowest barriers to entry. It will not only help beginners who want to become architects, but also allow technical people who have already become architects to avoid some wrong experiences. .

In the writing, I will try to avoid esoteric terms, and use easy-to-understand words to describe the thoughts and thoughts of the builders of the information world.