Continuous Architecture Manifesto

Table of Contents

This Continuous Architecture Manifesto provides a clear set of beliefs and principles for our architectural operating model. It is not an attempt to compete with other well-known manifestos (e.g. Agile Manifesto, Reactive Manifesto). It reflects a shift from traditional waterfall approaches with big designs up front to a continuous runway mindset.

Customers and users expect more

  • Customers prefer products and services that solve real problems and help them accomplish tasks.
  • Most customers leave a company after a poor experience.
  • Experience expectations are shaped by large technology companies.
  • Customers increasingly prefer brands aligned with environmental and social values; organizations incorporate ESG goals for both compliance and attractiveness.

Technology is a game changer

  • Cyber-physical systems make products smarter, more connected, personalized, and efficient.
  • The integration of digital and physical worlds creates new possibilities for functionality, interaction, and service delivery.
  • AI and LLMs enable personalized, efficient, and responsive customer experiences.

Business models evolve

  • The shift to “as-a-service” impacts offerings (usage vs. ownership), revenue models, sales, and delivery.
  • Business ecosystems emerge by combining capabilities from different sectors to offer services that no single company could provide alone.

Decision-making is less centralized

  • Teams closer to the problem and the customer make faster decisions without multiple approval layers, enabling quicker adaptation to market changes.
  • Decentralization scales operations more effectively by distributing the decision-making load.

Facts supported by data drive decisions

  • Data provides an unbiased view of reality, minimizing personal opinions, emotions, and biases.
  • It helps detect shifts in market conditions, customer behavior, and the competitive landscape.
  • Decision-making evolves from guesswork to a more scientific approach.

Management practices influence performance

  • In many organizations, hierarchical management discourages initiative and reduces innovation capacity.
  • Lack of autonomy and recognition reduces employee engagement, impacting both economic and social performance.
  • Employees and employers alike demand improved management practices.

Rapid deployment of Software-Defined-X and X-as-Code

  • By shifting from hardware-centric to software-driven solutions, Software-Defined-X:

    • Enables organizations to adapt quickly to changing needs by abstracting hardware dependencies.
    • Reduces operational costs by automating routine tasks while improving resilience by minimizing human error.

Software becomes a commodity

  • Low-code/no-code platforms democratize software creation, enabling faster innovation with fewer technical barriers.
  • Agentic AI coding tools transform productivity and workflows; projections estimate that AI will generate 95% of code within 5 years (vs. 30% today).

Platforms go mainstream

  • By separating stable components from differentiators, platforms provide economies of scale while accelerating innovation.
  • Platforms with highly usable self-service features empower autonomous teams.

Non-Functional Requirements (NFRs) are key

  • Security, safety, privacy, resilience, robustness, sustainability, and frugality become critical architectural drivers.
  • Traceability of requirements ensures that architectural decisions align with business impact (e.g. SRE practices).

We Deliver Superior Product Experience

  • We adopt an outside-in approach, analyzing customer and stakeholder context to guide product design.
  • We integrate customer research from sociology, anthropology, and marketing.
  • We favor automation with a human touch to make products and services easier to use.
  • We leverage architecture for flow to support continuous development and operations, shortening learning cycles through rapid feedback.
  • We design smart products powered by AI and LLMs.
  • We build safe, secure, ESG-friendly, and antifragile products that customers can trust.
  • We ensure efficient delivery and customer support processes that meet stakeholder expectations.

We Advocate a Socio-Technical Approach

  • Continuous Architecture is recursive: we build the socio-technical systems that build and operate the product system.
  • Architecture sparks essential discussions and informs decisions at both enterprise and product levels. Architects act as experts and coaches.
  • We use modularity to eliminate avoidable inter-team dependencies, a powerful lever for autonomy.
  • We promote the symbiosis between humans and machines: humans + AI outperform humans or machines alone. Full automation is not always the right solution.
  • We foster a learning organization with mentoring practices and empowered teams.
  • We apply Conway’s Law: by structuring teams to reflect the desired architecture (inverse Conway maneuver) we reduce handoffs and interfaces.
  • We recognize that new technologies impact social balance. We favor the co-evolution of social and technological systems.

We Engineer and Steer Complex Systems

  • We prioritize domain modeling and design over rigid processes or trend-driven technology choices.
  • We practice rigorous requirements engineering, linking non-functional objectives and metrics to business needs (e.g. SRE).
  • We encourage self-sovereign identity and smart contracts to secure data exchange across ecosystems.
  • We extend product development to include design of delivery and support processes. We validate architecture through rapid delivery and real-world feedback.
  • We favor leveling over layering: modular decomposition guides system evolution. We standardize boundaries for reuse and composability.
  • We embrace platform thinking to maximize reuse and autonomy.
  • We design with a holistic view, recognizing the interdependence of business models, hardware, software, and services.
  • We promote concurrent engineering over sequential processes.

Our Principles

  1. Customer-centricity first: outside-in design, grounded in research and empathy.
  2. Flow and feedback: continuous delivery, automation, and rapid learning loops.
  3. Socio-technical balance: systems evolve with both people and technology.
  4. Autonomy through modularity: minimizing dependencies, maximizing empowerment.
  5. Resilience and responsibility: designing for security, sustainability, and trust.
  6. Holistic systems thinking: aligning business, technology, and human factors.

✨ We invite practitioners, organizations, and communities to adopt, share, and evolve these principles with us to shape the future of Continuous Architecture.

This document is the second edition (2.0) of the Continuous Architecture Manifesto, published in 2025.
It updates and expands upon the original beliefs and principles presented in the first edition.

ℹ️ For historical reference, the first edition of the Continuous Architecture Manifesto (1.0) remains available in the archive.

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