Architectural Characteristics

Architecture is abstract until it is operationalized.
— Neal Ford

Characteristic Vs Trait

According to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary, one of the definitions of the word characteristic is a quality or property of a person or thing and the definition of the word trait is an inherited characteristic of a person or thing

Within the context of software architecture, we could view a characteristic as a generalization of one or more traits that can be applied to a wide range of concerns critical to the success of the architecture.

$$ Trait \subset Characteristic $$

A characteristic, also referred to as Non-Functional Requirement or quality attribute, is qualitative in nature. It can be difficult to come up with the right objective tests to measure a characteristic whereas a trait provides a class of attributes to measure how the system is currently used and whether it is meeting expectations using observability techniques and other response indicators.

Below are a few architectural characteristics referenced in the works of Neal Ford et al. relevant to cloud native application architectures.

Agility

• The ability to respond quickly to changing business needs

Deployability

• The ability to deploy and release services independent of other services it depends on
• The ability to deploy and code using Continuous Delivery pipelines all the way to production

Testability

• The ability to verify the veracity of certain characteristics of the architecture using automated tests
• The ability to perform testing without requiring an integrated environment

Evolvability

• Evolvability is a meta-characteristic, an architectural wrapper that protects all the other architectural characteristics.