Software is ultimately written for people, not just machines. A processor would be perfectly fine with assembly or machine code, but those of us with meat-space processors need abstractions, readable syntax, and organized source code to navigate and understand complex systems. This is where software architecture comes in and provides the structural framework to make sure our applications are reliable, effective, and maintainable over time. This month, we explore how architecture blends art and science to deal with the inevitable trade-offs every project must make. I’ll show the role of Architectural Decision Records for documenting the “why” behind key choices and then demonstrate how we can enforce these standards automatically using custom PHPStan rules and the PHPArkitect package. by Oscar Merida