computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...

, self-contained system (SCS) is a

software architecture Software architecture is the fundamental structure of a software system and the discipline of creating such structures and systems. Each structure comprises software elements, relations among them, and properties of both elements and relations. ...

approach that focuses on a separation of the functionality into many independent systems, making the complete logical system a collaboration of many smaller software systems.

Self-contained system characteristics

SCS have certain characteristics: #Each SCS is an autonomous web application. #Each SCS is owned by one team. #Communication with other SCSs or third-party systems is asynchronous wherever possible. #An SCS can have an optional service API. #Each SCS must include data and logic. #An SCS should make its features usable to end-users by its own UI. #To avoid tight coupling an SCS should share no business code with other SCSs. #Shared infrastructure should be reduced to increase availability and decrease coupling. Implementations create larger systems using this approach – in particular web applications. There are many case studies and further links available.

Self-contained systems and microservices

While self-contained systems are similar to

microservices A microservice architecture – a variant of the service-oriented architecture structural style – is an architectural pattern that arranges an application as a collection of loosely-coupled, fine-grained services, communicating through ligh ...

there are differences: A system will usually contain fewer SCS than microservices. Also microservices can communicate with other microservices – even synchronously. SCS prefer no communication or asynchronous communication. Microservices might also have a separate UI unlike the SCS that include a UI.

Usage

There are quite a few known usages of SCS – e.g. at Otto and

Galeria Kaufhof Galeria Kaufhof GmbH was a German department store chain, headquartered in Cologne. It was a member of the International Association of Department Stores from 1930 to 2010, with various CEOs acting as presidents of the Association over time. U ...

References

Architectural pattern (computer science) {{computing-stub