Contemporary software development presents a paradox: while architectural decisions have become increasingly abstracted from developers, their consequences have never been more significant. Modern software delivery stacks embody significant pre-made architectural choices, agile working emphasises adaptability over upfront design, and patterns like microservices can make detailed models redundant. AI-assisted code generation can further distance practitioners from architectural concerns, contributing to a situation where many practitioners may question the importance of software architecture.

This talk explores how software architecture relates to modern software delivery practice. By considering how we got here, I argue that software architecture remains not only relevant but increasingly critical, although its nature and application may need to evolve significantly from some of the fundamentals of historical approaches. This has significant implications for the focus of software architecture research and how we conduct it, in order to have significant industrial impact.

I will discuss what today’s practitioners require from software architecture and why it is more essential than ever. I will also explore how we might align software architecture research with contemporary practitioner needs to maximise its contribution in an environment where architectural decisions need to be made quickly in the face of rapidly changing requirements.

Eoin Woods is an independent consultant in the fields of software architecture, green software and software engineering. He is formerly the CTO of Endava, where he was responsible for software engineering and capability development for over 10,000 delivery staff across the world. Prior to Endava he has developed databases, created security software and designed way too many systems to move money around. Outside his day job he is interested in software architecture, software security and sustainable (or “green”) software. He is a regular conference speaker, has co-authored three books on software architecture and was the recipient of the 2018 Linda Northrup Award for Software Architecture, from the Software Engineering Institute at CMU. His web site is www.eoinwoods.info.