The architecture decisions you can’t reverse
Most leaders underestimate how many architectural decisions are one-way doors. You don’t notice them when the system is small. You notice them when scale, regulation, and teams collide.
Choose the wrong integration pattern. Choose the wrong data model. Choose the wrong platform boundary. You’re not “slower.” You’re structurally constrained.
Reversibility drops to zero the moment other teams depend on your choice. That’s when platform debt begins. Not when code is written, but when the organisation bends around it.
Architecture isn’t about picking tools. It’s about choosing which constraints you’re willing to live with for the next five years.
You don’t fix this with sprinting, resourcing, or heroic engineering. You fix it by treating early decisions as directional rather than cosmetic.
Some doors close the moment you walk through them. Architects know which ones.