Design Principles

Principles that shape how we evaluate trade-offs and make architectural decisions.

Topics

Simplicity and evolvability

YAGNI, strangler fig, reversible decisions.

• Designing for change without predicting the future
• One-way vs two-way door decisions

Observability by design

Telemetry as a first-class requirement.

• The three pillars as design constraints, not afterthoughts

Security and least privilege

Zero trust, identity-first, defence in depth.

• Identity as the perimeter
• Least privilege for workloads and humans

Operational sustainability

Toil reduction, runbooks, operability reviews.

• Designing systems operators can run at 3am

Cost awareness

FinOps mindset at design time.

• Architecture decisions that compound cloud cost
• Right-sizing without sacrificing mauri

People-centred design

Developer experience, cognitive load, team boundaries.

• Conway’s Law in platform design
• Reducing cognitive load for development teams