Signs it is time to revisit system design reviews

Most teams know this matters. Fewer have decided who owns it. A few signals that system design reviews is due some attention.

The right architecture for a team of three is the wrong one for a team of thirty, and vice versa. It is the sort of thing that looks like polish right up until it costs you an enquiry.

The signals

• Nobody can say when it was last reviewed
• The answer depends on who you ask
• An hour of review before the build saves weeks of rework
• Write the design down

The practical version

Invite the person who will be on call for it. That sounds obvious written down. It is still the thing most often skipped. Most teams find the first pass takes an afternoon and the maintenance takes minutes a month.

The short version

Architecture is the set of decisions that are expensive to reverse, which is the only reason they deserve the name. Three things worth confirming about system design reviews before you move on:

• Someone can say what the current setup is without going to look
• Write the design down — and you know whether that is true here
• There is a way to tell whether the last change to this helped

None of this needs a rewrite. Most of it is a morning's work once someone decides to do it.