This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Artem Petukhov
Do new features feel heavier and heavier to deliver?
Every small change breaks something old, bugs multiply, and a โtiny fixโ turns into a 3-day quest?
If so โ the problem isnโt the people.
Itโs the architecture.
Or the lack of it.
What is architecture?
Architecture is the set of decisions that manage the cost of change over time.
Its goal: ensure that every new feature doesnโt cost more than the previous one.
If effort keeps growing with each iteration โ your architecture is broken (or simply missing).
What bad architecture looks like
- Every change breaks something old
- Bugs appear โout of nowhereโ
- The team gets tired and demotivated
- Management keeps asking โWhy is it so slow?โ
- The team grows, but the velocity doesnโt
- The cost of development grows exponentially
In plain words โ chaos grows.
A bit of real life from projects
- โWe need this release yesterday!โ
- โWeโll clean it up later.โ (Never
)
- โDonโt polish it, just make it work.โ
- โWe must finish before the deadline!โ โ over and over again.
With every such release and a few thousand new lines of code,
the project becomes more fragile and entangled.
Every new change triggers a new wave of bugs.
Why does it happen?
The main enemy of architecture is haste 
.
We trade quality for speed.
We gain time today โ and lose much more tomorrow.
Letโs face it: speed without quality is an illusion.
How to fix it
โThe more you rush, the less you achieve.โ
You have to slow down to speed up.
Just like in sports โ cycles of rest and adjustment are essential.
What you need:
Design reviews for complex features (before implementation)
Proper cross-review and shared conventions
Use of design patterns with room for simple extension
Regular work on technical debt
Following SOLID principles and maintaining structure
Understanding that every MR either improves or worsens the system
Building a culture of accountability for introduced chaos (bugs)
Realistic planning, risk assessment, and acknowledging project complexity
Most teams say โWeโll refactor laterโ โ
but later almost never comes. The next feature always wins.
Culture starts from the bottom up.
If youโre a developer โ write clean code, discuss design decisions,
appreciate reviews, grow your hard skills and responsibility.
Good architecture is not a luxury โ itโs an investment.
It keeps change affordable and allows the product to evolve sustainably.
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Artem Petukhov