TL;DR
Find your change agent who understands both system boundaries and business goals
Master the enterprise stack: commerce, operations, customer touchpoints
Let business value drive composable architectural decisions, not technical novelty and bias
Break platform limitations through strategic partnerships or better yet, show them the way
Future is change with emerging tech (AI, automation) capabilities, this emphasizes the role of the architect, it doesn't replace them
"Tell me about your decision framework for platform capabilities"
This is often the first question I ask when discussing architectural choices. When do you lean on out-of-the-box features, when do you tap into the ecosystem, and when do you break away entirely?
Years ago, working as a consultant for the Library of Congress, where we were customizing SharePoint WebParts for congressional reports, we struggled with the rigidity yet marveled at the possibilities of customizing content and style.
Today, we can do better - Start with a core and explore the ecosystem - like Star Trek's missions to boldly go beyond the galactic barrier.
A sophisticated enterprise symphony
Core Commerce (E.g: Shopify+, SFCC, CommerceTools)
Support for your Operations, Finance and Enterprise stack - ERP and other Enterprise related systems
Meeting customers beyond just your website - Mobile app, marketplaces and social network stores
PoS & B2B Extensions
ESP and messaging capabilities (E.g: Klaviyo)
Internationalization beyond string translation
Product Information Management
CMS & Experimentation stacks
Marketing & MTA platforms
Edge & AI capabilities
Custom cloud functions
CDP & Web ETL
Journey observability
Security and Non functional needs
And this is just the overture – after two decades of conducting these enterprise symphonies, I've learned there's always another instrument waiting in the wings. The real art isn't in knowing each component, but in recognizing which new additions will enhance your orchestra rather than create discord.
But who makes the call?
Find someone who knows the four corners - thrives in constraints but knows how to break free.
"Enterprise ecosystems are time machines - barreling between past certainties and future possibilities. In these gaps live the change agents"
When I was learning driving, my instructor insisted that mastering your vehicle meant knowing exactly where your four corners were at all times. Platforms are similar - you need to understand their boundaries, their constraints, their connection points, and their blind spots. Just as a skilled driver can navigate tight spaces by intuiting their vehicle's dimensions, a skilled platform architect must sense where their platform begins and ends, where it can flex and where it might break.
It's the singular platform owner who guarantees business the returns they seek - someone who can float between the 50,000-ft view and ground operations, making two sub-systems talk or negotiating because marketing needs support. Titles don't matter here, though I've seen these folks often placed in executive roles to provide necessary backing.
Today's operators - your product owners, developers, security analysts - need to be more than just implementation teams. The strongest among them are practitioners of composable architecture (PCA), critical thinkers who truly wield these systems rather than being surrogates or prisoners of trying to build it all . (Note to self: claim PCA if this catches on)
You are but one paying customer until you are the one
"They won't consider your request, they get tons of these"
Yet I've seen the impossible become possible. The same CX call that dismisses your feature request is succeeded by one with a partnership team might soon want you in their limited beta. The key? Strategic persistence. It's not just about persistence - it's about persistent, strategic engagement that transforms you from just another ticket to a valued partner.
Composable Architecture in Practice
My journey through composable architecture has proven that thoughtful composition trumps all-in-one solutions. When our e-commerce platform's image compression compromised brand quality, we implemented a dedicated DAM. When tracking implementations fragmented across services and our ad systems failed, we introduced centralized CDP, Warehousing and Middleware ETL's like Rudderstack. These weren't just technical decisions - they were business imperatives.
"The best composable decisions aren't driven by technical novelty, but by business necessity"
Technical memos have become my foundation for consensus-driven architectural decisions, forcing us to articulate business problems and multiple solution paths. Thanks to composable architectures having overlapping features, we can evaluate various approaches - each with their own trade-offs and implications
Looking Ahead
I do not think AI's influence in composable architecture is a fad, we're witnessing the opening acts of a transformative show. Agents are beginning to conduct these system orchestras while humans compose new symphonies.
The early notes are promising - from Lingo.dev experimenting with AI-powered localization that understands cultural nuance, to Profound introduced by Jake Makler on how brands might dance through the generative search landscape of ChatGPT and Gemini.
But these are just the warm-up exercises, the first few measures of what promises to be a grand composition. Tomorrow's composable architectures will showcase how operators and systems evolve together - not replacing each other, but creating the ultimate synthesis of human expertise and machine capability.
What movements would you add to this symphony? How are you orchestrating the composable vs. monolithic vs. AI takes over vs. 'we cannot change' debate in your organization?