Practice architecture assessment vocabulary used in technical due diligence: single points of failure, scalability ratings, API versioning risk, and architecture scorecards.
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A due diligence report states 'the architecture has a single point of failure in the payment module'. What does SPOF mean?
A Single Point of Failure (SPOF) is a component without redundancy — if it goes down, the whole system or a critical function fails. In due diligence, a SPOF in a critical module like payments is a significant risk because it means one failure can cause total revenue loss. Acquirers look for redundancy, failover mechanisms, and disaster recovery plans.
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'We rate the scalability as limited — the monolith needs refactoring.' What scalability concern does a monolith present?
Monolithic architectures scale less efficiently than microservices because you must scale the entire application even if only one component is under load. For due diligence, a 'scalability limited' rating signals that significant re-architecture investment is needed before the system can handle growth — this is a cost and risk that affects the acquisition valuation.
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'The API layer is not versioned — breaking change risk.' Why is API versioning important?
API versioning (/v1/, /v2/) allows the API to evolve without breaking existing consumers. Without versioning, every change that modifies a response format or removes a field is a breaking change that can break downstream integrations immediately. In due diligence, missing versioning signals technical risk — any future change requires coordinating all consumers simultaneously.
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What is an 'architecture scorecard' in due diligence?
An architecture scorecard is a structured way to evaluate and communicate architecture quality during due diligence. Each dimension is rated (e.g., Green/Amber/Red or 1-5) with specific evidence. It allows acquirers to compare multiple acquisition targets consistently and understand where investment is needed post-acquisition.
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During due diligence, an assessor says 'the system has no observability layer'. Why is this a risk?
Observability (metrics, distributed tracing, structured logging) is critical for operating a system reliably. Without it, diagnosing production incidents takes much longer, engineering teams operate 'blind', and making confident changes becomes risky. In due diligence, missing observability is flagged as technical debt requiring investment post-acquisition.