When starting a new development project — whether for a new product or an internal business solution — several decisions must be made: choosing the programming language, defining infrastructure, modeling the database, and more.
Beyond these technical foundations, it’s also essential to decide how to organize code modules and components. Traditionally considered “non-functional requirements,” factors like scalability, failure resilience, low coupling, and ease of maintenance and continuous delivery are now central architectural concerns.

With the rise of microservices, many teams have moved away from traditional monolithic approaches and adopted microservices from day one. But it’s worth asking: Are we adding unnecessary complexity to an already volatile development process? Do microservices really deliver the competitive edge we expect?

Faced with these doubts, this article presents some practical criteria to help you evaluate which architecture is best for your project — before the complexity grows to the point of compromising the agility and value delivered to the business.