Solution Architecture – A Freelancer’s Systems Thinking Primer
These are personal notes from my deep dive into planning and thinking about software development from a systems and business-oriented lens. I revisit them frequently to reinforce the mindset.
What is Solution Architecture?
Solution Architecture is a way of thinking about business technological solutions from business-related, informational, and technical viewpoints.
It’s not just about choosing the right tech. It’s about framing problems, aligning systems with business goals, and making sure that software supports—not suffocates—the business.
Why Is It Important? (Especially for Freelancers)
A person running a business is making choices based on business needs, affordability, and time constraints, with the ultimate goal of enhancing business processes or creating business value. Software systems often serve those needs. They enable businesses to manage information and processes better, more efficiently, so that businesses can realize financial and operational success.
Dragan Rusnov in Definition, Concept, and Impact of Solution Architecture
This quote nailed it for me. Freelancers often step into situations where they are both the dev and the architect. Understanding this broader context is not optional—it’s survival.
What Good Software Solutions Must Understand:
- The behavior and properties of each system in the business (context-aware).
- The relationships between systems and how they contribute to the final business goal.
The Three Layers of Architecture
1. Enterprise Architecture – The Big Picture
- Who does the company serve?
- What’s the profit mechanism?
- Where are the natural and hidden leakages?
- How do business segments communicate?
This is where you step back and study the entire system. When people call in consultants or devs, it’s usually because they can’t see these leakages clearly.
TIPS: Listen to the client. Study the numbers. Imagine patterns. Picture best-case and worst-case scenarios for every system interaction.
2. Solution Architecture – The Operational Blueprint
If a business is a solution to a social problem, solution architecture is the breakdown of how the business solves it:
- What are the workflows?
- What’s the order of operations?
- Where is automation needed?
We need a standalone subscription management app, and a dashboard for reason ABC.
You should be able to justify why you want them, and why in that order.
3. Technical Architecture – The Tools and Tech
This is the paintbrush level—tools, APIs, cloud services, frameworks. But it must always reflect the logic of the two layers above.
At this point, we’re analyzing efficiency: affordability, scalability, manageability, and reusability.
And I’d add: Adjust to the business’s capabilities.
🧠 Case Study: Airbnb
I particularly liked this article on how Airbnb’s architecture evolved. It’s a real-world example of why solution architects and devs must build for the problem in front of them, not for some idealized future.
- They started with a monolith (Monorail) – one DB, one codebase.
- Over time, scale forced them to adopt a Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) – with each service owning its own DB and talking to others via APIs/events.
Lesson: Don’t try to build it perfectly. Build it perfectly for your use-case.
Final Notes
- Technical architecture is the fun part, but without grounding in Enterprise and Solution Architecture, it risks being a pile of features with no coherent purpose.
- In large teams, these responsibilities are often divided. But as a freelancer, you are the architect by default.
- Keep your systems thinking sharp. Revisit these principles. Re-read the Airbnb case. Adjust your lens with every new client.
🧭 These notes are not a tutorial—they’re a compass.
Will Be Revisited Often.