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Today we bring you another interview with a great professional in the software architecture industry, Alexander von Zitzewitz. Alexander attended the Global Software Architecture Summit, an event organized and hosted by Apiumhub, last year in October to present his talk “Metrics for Architects.” We had the opportunity to interview him during the event to learn more about his experience and his chapter in the Software Architecture Metrics book published by O’Reilly.
Briefly introduce yourself
My name is Alexander von Zitzewitz, I am the founder and CEO of hello2morrow, a company focusing on creating tools for static analysis for metrics and architecture.
What can you say about the Global Software Architecture Summit this year?
It’s a very lovely place. I love Barcelona, the event, the organization, and the way it’s performed. It’s also a very nice crowd, so I would highly recommend this event to anyone who’s working in the software architecture space.
What software architecture metrics do you normally use?
We like to use maintainability level. That is a metric we developed to measure the maintainability of a code base. We can also use classics such as propagation cost and relative cyclicity. I believe it’s important to measure cyclic dependencies because they are the main cause of a lot of travel and software systems. You get more and more cyclic dependencies taking over a system.
What are the key software architecture insights you could share with GSAS attendees?
The most important thing to know if you don´t know anything about metrics and software architecture you get the big ball of mud for free. Basically, if you don´t integrate metrics into your process, chances are that you will end up as a big ball of mud with lots of trouble.
Can you briefly comment on your Software Architecture metrics book chapter?
My chapter focuses on technical metrics that measure coupling in software system complexity. I think coupling and complexity are the main enemies of maintainable software and this chapter focuses very much on those technical metrics that look at dependency structures, cyclical dependencies, and erosion of architecture. They are very good early warning metrics when it comes to trying to stop the big ball of mud from happening.
The idea is to really measure these metrics on a regular basis ideally in your CI build and trigger actions when they go below a certain value.
Did you find this interview with Alexander von Zitzewitz interesting? If so, you can head to the Apiumhub blog to read more interviews with other GSAS 2022 speakers and authors of important books in the software architecture industry.
GSAS 2023: The third edition
Are you interested in attending GSAS this year? The event will take place on October 9-11 at the Axa Auditorium in Barcelona. This year’s edition will focus on modern practices in software architecture: how to be more effective, and efficient and enjoy what you do.
Industry experts such as Mark Richards, Neal Ford, Jacqui Read, Eoin Woods, Nick Tune, Diana Montalion, and many others will be there to share their knowledge and expertise. Are you going to miss it? Get your tickets here.
