Operational Simplicity First
Architecture decisions should be measured by operational clarity, not only technical elegance.
A system that looks optimal on paper can still fail a team if incident ownership is unclear, local development is fragile, or runbooks are outdated.
A simple decision filter
Before introducing a new component, ask:
- Who owns this when it fails?
- How do we observe it in production?
- Can a new team member debug it in under an hour?
If these questions are hard to answer, the design is probably too complex for current team capacity.
A better default
Prefer boring, observable primitives first. Add specialized tooling only when you can explain the operational benefit in concrete terms.