Why Monoliths Are Not the Enemy

Before the Decoupling Point, a monolith helps you move fast. You change anything without worrying about interfaces because you're still discovering what customers want. Integration during this phase is a competitive advantage.

After the Decoupling Point, the same integration becomes a liability. Customers stop paying for raw performance and start demanding flexibility. The problem isn't that you have one deployment. It's that everything depends on everything else. You can have a monolith that's well-modularized internally, or microservices that are tightly coupled. Deployment topology matters less than dependency structure.

Don't break up your monolith because microservices are trendy. Break it up because your Connascence Degree is rising and your velocity is dropping. If neither is true, your monolith is probably fine.