Software Architecture

Learn how architecture makes responsibilities, boundaries, trade-offs, and runtime evidence explicit across real systems.

This course is for people who need to explain structure and quality decisions clearly, not just draw boxes on a slide. By the end, you should be able to reason about where boundaries belong, what trade-offs you accepted, and how to prove the system behaves as designed.

12 hours3 stages plus summary, 22 modulesSome experienceFree, no account
Start with Module 1
Coloured code on screen - photo by Ilya Pavlov on Unsplash

What you will learn

  • Explain software architecture decisions and trade-offs in clear, non-technical language
  • Read and create architecture diagrams using layered, client-server, and C4 views
  • Compare architectural styles such as microservices, event-driven, and CQRS designs
  • Connect architecture work to digitalisation strategy and organisational change
  • Reason about quality attributes like scalability, resilience, and maintainability
  • Write Architecture Decision Records (ADRs) that capture context and consequences

Single learning path

  • People who want to move from writing code to thinking like software architects
  • Students and professionals working in digitalisation, data, and integration
  • Teams and lecturers who want ready-made diagrams, tools, and scenarios for teaching architecture

Prerequisites: Basic familiarity with software development. No architecture experience required.

Course curriculum

Read the modules in order on the first pass. Use the practice and stage tests when you want a stricter check on what stuck.

1

Stage 1. Architecture Foundations

9 modules · 4 hours

1What architecture is and why it matters30 min2Components, interfaces, and boundaries30 min3Quality attributes and non-functional requirements35 min4Architecture Decision Records30 min5Layered architecture30 min6Client-server and request-response25 min7The C4 model22 min8Security by design25 min9CI/CD and deployment fundamentals25 minPracticePractice testUntimed
2

Stage 2. Applied Architecture

6 modules · 3 hours

10Microservices architecture35 min11Event-driven architecture35 min12CQRS and event sourcing35 min13Domain-Driven Design essentials30 min14Resilience and fault tolerance30 min15Scalability patterns30 minPracticePractice testUntimed
3

Stage 3. Digital and Cloud-Scale Architecture

7 modules · 4 hours

16Hexagonal and clean architecture45 min17Serverless and edge computing40 min18Observability and SRE30 min19Deployment strategies30 min20Integration patterns at scale30 min21Architecture governance and TOGAF45 min22Chaos engineering and trade-off analysis30 min
4

Software Architecture summary and games

1 hour

A recap and playful space to join up diagrams, patterns, and digitalisation ideas with small applied challenges.

Standards and references

This course is aligned to the following standards, frameworks, and certification objectives.

  1. 1ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010:2022 architecture description standard
  2. 2ISO/IEC 25010:2023 software quality model standard
  3. 3C4 Model (reference framework for communicating architecture)
  4. 4arc42 architecture documentation template (reference framework)
  5. 5OpenTelemetry specification (observability specification)
  6. 6TOGAF Standard, 10th Edition (enterprise architecture framework)