Notes on the talk on Building Resilient Frontend Architecture by Monica Lent.

In this wonderful talk, Monica cuts to the heart of core aspects of rewriting code and presents 3 strategies to increase the resiliency of frontend architecture.

Why do we usually rewrite code?

Inexperience, it’s fun, better solution available and (the big one 🥁) Technical debt 🎉.

Monica’s definition of Technical debt:

Code that negatively and repeatedly affects the speed or quality of delivery.

She continues to dig into technical debt, and the tendency to do big bang refactors to “fix” said debt, only to see them build up again. Or “Technical debt on a subscription model”🤣.

The real cost of software is not the initial development but maintenance over time

Constraints for a more resilient architecture

Architecture as enabling constraints - Constraints about how we use data and code that help us move faster over time

  1. “Source code dependencies must point inwards” => “Easier to isolate impact of changes”
  2. “Be conservative about code reuse” => “Avoid coupling code that diverges over time”
  3. “Enforce your boundaries” => “Preserve architecture over time”

In conclusion

💰The real cost of software is maintenance over time, because change is inevitable.

🚘Architecture is about applying enabling constraints to how we use code and data

🐿We can make small changes to make our projects more resilient

  • Think directionally
  • Be conservative on reuse
  • Enforce your boundaries

… and in addition - architecture from different languages and areas can be applied to our frontends. Be open to learning and adapting.