Does size matter?

Modules, SOA, Microservices, Macroservices, Microsystems, Monoliths…

If we haven’t identified proper system boundaries, none of these concepts and/or approaches matter.

Too often do we jump into technical jargon and start dissecting our monolith or even worse start of with a distributed system without actually understanding the problem space we are dealing with.

Without proper understanding, I’d rather stick to the monolith because at least, I don’t have to fight the accidental complexity of dealing with a distributed system ie I’d rather not have any explicit boundaries instead of having the wrong ones because in my short experience it is way harder to merge systems than to decompose them (from a technical perspective).

At the end of the day Monolith and Microservices are one and the same.

Think about this for a moment.

If you do, you will realize that the only truly distinctive property of all of them is the domain of responsibility they have (number of responsibilities and cohesion) which only indirectly affects the size — and too often do we concentrate on the size and ignore the responsibilities …

…too often do we focus on symptoms instead of the real causes.

#KISS