Introduction

Figurate is a collection of patterns and concerns relevant to the operation of modern software systems. Figurate promotes the design principles of modularity and separation of concerns, such that the cognitive load of managing individual software components is reduced.

Whilst modularity and loose coupling are recognised as good tenents of software design, it is also just as valid when considering the wider DevOps ecosystem. Whether you look towards Platform Engineering, Golden Path or something else, these are all just implementations of separation of concerns and loose coupling.

Security	Reliability	Efficiency	Operational Excellence	Cost Optimization	Sustainability
Tenant management	Identity Management	Permissions	Certificates	Encryption	Secrets
Threats	Audit	Usage monitoring	Throttling	Backups	-
Logging	Routing	Vulnerabilities	Service Quotas	-	-
Monitoring	Networking	Serverless	-	-	-
Alerting	Tracing	-	-	-	-
Observability	-	-	-	-	-

Beginning with the top left of the Figurate table, and working across and down, we can address each of the concerns specific to an application, platform or organisation. Where the application(s) are hosted is an obvious primary concern, so we consider tenancy management as a starting point for any workload.

Identity is also an important concern for any workload, as it relates not just to application users but also mantainers. Threat detection and identification is also an important concern for all workloads, especially when operating in public environments (i.e. Cloud).

Figurate Maturity Model

Whilst there are many concerns when operating modern software, it is also true that it isn't realistic to be able to address all of them sufficiently on day one. The Figurate Maturity Model identifies levels of maturity when addressing key concerns, such that you may consider at a minimum what should be implemented based on the type of workload.

It is also true that some concerns may not even be supported by the target environment or platform, but ultimately this model is a general guide provided to address concerns where applicable.