Best Practices for Pattern Selection
Selecting Appropriate Patterns
- Understand the problem: Clearly identify the specific challenge before choosing a pattern
- Consider trade-offs: Each pattern introduces complexity and trade-offs
- Combine patterns: Many patterns work better together (Circuit Breaker + Retry, CQRS + Event Sourcing)
- Start simple: Don't over-engineer; apply patterns when the need is clear
- Platform-specific: Consider Azure services that implement patterns natively
Well-Architected Framework Alignment
Map selected patterns to Well-Architected Framework pillars:
- Reliability: Circuit Breaker, Bulkhead, Retry, Health Endpoint Monitoring
- Security: Federated Identity, Valet Key, Gateway Offloading, Quarantine
- Cost Optimization: Compute Resource Consolidation, Static Content Hosting, Throttling
- Operational Excellence: External Configuration Store, Sidecar, Deployment Stamps
- Performance Efficiency: Cache-Aside, CQRS, Materialized View, Sharding
Pattern Documentation
When implementing patterns, document:
- Which pattern is being used and why
- Trade-offs accepted
- Configuration and tuning parameters
- Monitoring and observability approach
- Failure scenarios and recovery procedures
Monitoring Patterns
- Implement comprehensive observability for all patterns
- Track pattern-specific metrics (circuit breaker state, cache hit ratio, queue depth)
- Use distributed tracing for patterns involving multiple services
- Alert on pattern degradation (circuit frequently open, high retry rates)