Hexagonal Architecture
Ports defined by the domain, adapters supplied by infrastructure.
3 to work through
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intermediate
A team applies hexagonal architecture and finds it adds ceremony without benefit. When does the pattern earn its cost?
2 min answer -
intermediate Multiple choice
What does hexagonal architecture give you that a conventional layered design does not?
2 min answer -
advanced
A communications platform integrates many external providers. How does a ports-and-adapters structure help, and what is the design mistake that negates it?
2 min answer
3 terms in this topic
Adapter Conformance Suite
One test suite written against a port and run against every implementation including the in-memory fake, so the fake cannot promise behaviour the rea…
patternHexagonal Architecture in Practice
The application defines ports; adapters implement them — so the same core is driven by HTTP, a queue, or a test with no changes.
patternPort and Adapter
An interface defined by the application expressing what it needs, paired with an implementation that connects it to a specific technology.
Neighbouring topics
Software Architecture
General material on the engineering underneath an architecture.
SOLID
Five design principles, two of which scale beyond the class.
Domain-Driven Design
Ubiquitous language, bounded contexts and context mapping.
Bounded Contexts
Where one model ends and another begins, and why forcing one fails.
Clean Architecture
Concentric layers with dependencies pointing only inwards.
Microservices
Independent deployability, and the distributed problems it buys.
Modular Monolith
Enforced internal boundaries without a network between them.
Service Boundaries
Drawing lines along change patterns rather than technical layers.
Design Patterns
Reusable solutions at code level, and when they become ceremony.
Refactoring
Changing structure without changing behaviour, in verified steps.
Technical Debt
Deliberate, tracked and repaid — as distinct from mess.
Testing Strategies
The pyramid, and the contract tests distributed systems add to it.
Contract Tests
Capturing what consumers actually use, not what the API documents.
CI/CD
Continuous integration and delivery, and the architecture that caps them.
Release Strategies
Blue-green, canary, shadow and progressive delivery.
Feature Flags
Decoupling deploy from release, with an expiry date.
Trunk-Based Development
Short-lived branches, and unmerged work as inventory.
Code Review
Where architectural rules are enforced by people rather than by tools.
DORA Metrics
Throughput and stability moving together rather than trading off.