Senior Architecture
Overview
This skill guides architectural design for complex, distributed systems using industry-standard documentation approaches. Use this skill when designing systems for scale, documenting architectural decisions, or ensuring long-term maintainability.
C4 Model - System Visualization
Objective: Create progressively detailed architectural views.
- •Level 1: Context: System boundary and external dependencies.
- •Level 2: Container: Major deployable units (services, apps, DBs).
- •Level 3: Component: Internal structure of containers.
- •Level 4: Code: Detailed implementation relationships.
Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)
Objective: Document significant decisions, rationale, and consequences.
ADR Structure
- •Status: Proposed, Accepted, Deprecated.
- •Context: Problem statement and constraints.
- •Decision: Chosen approach.
- •Rationale: Why this choice over alternatives.
- •Consequences: Benefits and costs.
Scalability Architecture Patterns
- •Horizontal Scaling: Adding instances for stateless services.
- •Vertical Scaling: Increasing resources for stateful services.
- •Asynchronous Processing: Decoupling workflows via message queues.
- •Caching: Multi-layer strategies (Client, CDN, App, DB).
Clean Modularity Patterns
- •Modular Boundaries: High cohesion and low coupling.
- •Dependency Inversion: Depend on abstractions, not implementations.
- •Layered Architecture: Presentation, Application, Domain, Infrastructure.