When it comes to software development, making the right decisions early on is crucial to the success of the project. Every aspect of the software architecture, from the design to the implementation, can greatly affect the future of the solution.

However, many software engineers often skip the process of architecting their solutions and jump straight into implementation, leading to a series of problems down the line. When change requests or bugs arise, they are forced to hack their system, making it more complicated and inoperable. This often results in the need to completely rewrite the software and migrate it to a new framework, leading to a vicious cycle.

While it’s easy to build a solution that works, building one that is scalable, resilient, secure, and maintainable for years or decades is much harder. This requires consideration of factors such as replication, encryption, caching, latency, cost, and CI/CD pipelines.

That’s why system architecture design (SAD) is so important. A solid SAD provides a number of benefits, including:

1. Defining a solution that meets requirements – A successful SAD requires close collaboration with stakeholders such as business analysts, product owners, marketers, developers, and end-users to ensure all requirements are understood and met.

2. Predicting software system qualities – Predicting software system qualities early on in the development process is crucial as it’s more difficult and costly to make changes later.

3. Easing communication among stakeholders – A well-designed SAD allows for effective communication and explanation to different stakeholders with varying interests.