Schedule

1
Intro + Contributing to Open Source
Week of September 2
Introduction to course structure, the fundamentals of large software systems, and how to effectively contribute to large software systems.
2
Analyzing and Understanding Large Codebases
Week of September 8
Understanding the architecture of large codebases and recognizing real-life applications of design patterns in a large codebase.
3
Operational Non-functional requirements
Week of September 15
What does it mean for a system to be performant? What are the operational requirements that we need to consider when designing a software system?
4
Structural Non-functional requirements
Week of September 22
Considerations to ensure the code quality of the system to enable it to be operated and maintained in quality.
5
Diagramming and Whiteboarding
Week of September 29
A picture is worth a thousand words. Visualizations are one of the most powerful tools in an architect's belt. This lecture discusses how diagramming and whiteboarding can be used to augment the communication that ensures software projects succeed.
6
Forming an Architecture
Week of October 6
The lecture covers forming an architecture for large software systems, discussing application architecture patterns, the transition from monoliths, and service-oriented architecture. It highlights maintainability, testability, layered architecture styles like MVC, and the microkernel architecture style. The lecture also examines trade-offs in distributed architectures, including latency and network reliability.
7
Analytical Processing and Distributed Architectures
Week of October 13
This lecture covers various distributed architectures, including pipeline, broker, and mediator topologies, and their application in report generation and AI. It also differentiates between operational and analytical data, discussing data warehousing, data lakes, and data mesh approaches.
8
Guest Lectures
Week of October 20
Lectures from industry professionals. Topic TBD
9
Reads, writes and replication
Week of November 3
A good architecture takes into account usage patterns. Explore some of the creative ways the industry uses to solve architecture challenges.
10
Evaluating and mitigating architecture risks
Week of November 10
Architecture is about communication and decision making. This lecture covers how architects analyze architectural risk in order to determine which decisions needs to be communicated to the rest of the team.
11
TBD
Week of November 17
TBD
12
Final Exam Review
Week of November 24
TBD