Minimal Viable Architecture

There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all architecture. For example, most large-scale web companies have over time evolved their system architecture from a monolithic application over a monolithic database to a set of loosely-coupled microservices connected by asynchronous events.

This presentation introduces the idea of a "Minimal Viable Architecture". As a company and product evolves, its architecture needs to evolve as well. We talk about the different phases of a product -- from the idea phase, to the starting phase, scaling phase, and optimizing phase. For each phase, we discuss the goals and constraints on the business, and we suggest an appropriate software architecture to match. Throughout the presentation, we use examples from eBay, Google, StitchFix, and others.