Best Practices for Pattern Selection

Selecting Appropriate Patterns

• Understand the problem: Clearly identify the specific challenge before choosing a pattern
• Consider trade-offs: Each pattern introduces complexity and trade-offs
• Combine patterns: Many patterns work better together (Circuit Breaker + Retry, CQRS + Event Sourcing)
• Start simple: Don't over-engineer; apply patterns when the need is clear
• Platform-specific: Consider Azure services that implement patterns natively

Well-Architected Framework Alignment

Map selected patterns to Well-Architected Framework pillars:

• Reliability: Circuit Breaker, Bulkhead, Retry, Health Endpoint Monitoring
• Security: Federated Identity, Valet Key, Gateway Offloading, Quarantine
• Cost Optimization: Compute Resource Consolidation, Static Content Hosting, Throttling
• Operational Excellence: External Configuration Store, Sidecar, Deployment Stamps
• Performance Efficiency: Cache-Aside, CQRS, Materialized View, Sharding

Pattern Documentation

When implementing patterns, document:

• Which pattern is being used and why
• Trade-offs accepted
• Configuration and tuning parameters
• Monitoring and observability approach
• Failure scenarios and recovery procedures

Monitoring Patterns

• Implement comprehensive observability for all patterns
• Track pattern-specific metrics (circuit breaker state, cache hit ratio, queue depth)
• Use distributed tracing for patterns involving multiple services
• Alert on pattern degradation (circuit frequently open, high retry rates)