The fundamental principles for using microservices for modernization

The last few years I have spent a lot of time building new application on microservices and also moving parts of monolith to microservices. I I have researched and tried sharing my practical experience in several articles on this topic.

This week my second blog on some foundational principles of microservices published on Capgemini website.

https://www.capgemini.com/se-en/2021/11/the-fundamental-principles-for-using-microservices-for-modernization/

Product Oriented Development Methodolgy

In several Organizations, the focus of project execution has recently changed from more product-specific deliveries replacing project-specific deliveries. This requires a complete organization-wide change to make every internal/external project run on AGILE ways of working.

What this essentially means is that every project needs to be viewed from an MVP approach. i.e. Most valuable product.  This requires

1. Changes in the organization and team structures

Teams are more defined based on specific goals. Teams are asked to think more in terms of product innovation and deliver specific features to evolve the product. There is no one-time delivery system and the business teams are aligned directly with these teams to incorporate faster feedbacks on the product roadmaps. Each team is attached to a dedicated product owner who helps create the specific goal required by the business teams. 

2. Changes to the ways of working.

Different stakeholders (Both IT and business) meet in every few weeks and define the product goals. Teams are more cross-functional so that they can be moved around once the specific need of the goal is achieved. From the business perspective, the money allocation to building these products is more incremental and on a quarter by quarter basis rather than estimating long term projects. If an idea is not flying it can be terminated at any point in time. Teams are more strengthened with Agile and DevOps culture. It’s a more flat structure where the individual teams mostly interact with an Agile Coach, PO, and a PMO in the hierarchy. 

3. Product Goal Definition

The product goal definition is based on the lifecycle of the idea from start to production and the idea is split into the specific weeks road map. The goals are created based on different objectives related to parameters that can be real-time customer behavior or any quantifiable metric. Each team is asked to present the product's progress in incremental demos every second week. Several of the goals are also based on the market competition and the main idea is faster velocity.