This is the first of many chapters that each do a deep-dive on a particular architecture style; in this chapter, we start with the layered monolithic architecture, also known by many as the default architecture. We describe the topology, communication, data strategies, and philosophy underlying this style. We also point to ways to govern this style and how to adapt the style without breaking it.

The outcome of the architectural characteristics and logical component analysis we've been undertaking over the last few chapters is for an architect to choose an appropriate architecture style most suitable for the problem and capabilities we must build to be successful. Thus, this chapter starts a deep-dive on the most popular generic architecture styles that architects should be aware of. This chapter separates the concept of style versus pattern and describe how we'll tackle each fundamental style.

For the past few chapters/episodes, we've been delving into the analysis and definition of architectural characteristics, one of the two key structural design activities for software architects. In this chapter, we cover the other aspect of structural design in defining logical components, the building blocks of most software architectures. These define the behavior of the system, and we talk about some techniques and challenges in understanding the problem domain and translating it to software structure.