[squidbidness]

It feels to me like the argument of this article can be boiled down to: "The Majestic Monolith is a Good Thing, since when you know you're dealing with a monolithic system, you know you'll be hosed if you don't take extra special care." But I don't see anything here arguing that such care is inherent to the pattern--only that such care is needed when applying the pattern. I see that as a caveat, not as a built-in feature.

I agree that with a small team it's much more feasible to keep the monolith well-polished. But that polishing is more a product of professionalism and discipline than something that will come along naturally with applying the pattern--which is orthogonal to whether or not the code is monolithic. Good patterns are supposed to be non-orthogonal to good discipline--that is, they should bring along design benefits as an artifact of the pattern themselves.

[enieslobby]

non-orthogonal?

[squidbidness]

If you move in the direction of the pattern, its direction should carry you at least somewhat in the direction that a good design would, where 'orthogonal' would not carry you in that direction at all. So, not orthogonal, even if not strictly parallel. My metaphor and non-metaphor are unimpeachable :p

[freekh]

Parallel? :P