Trade-off

Definitions

1. A deliberate engineering decision where improving one quality (speed, simplicity, safety) comes at the expense of another. The essence of software architecture is navigating trade-offs, not finding perfect solutions.

   In plain English: Choosing to gain something at the cost of something else — like picking a faster database that's harder to query, because no solution is perfect at everything.

   Example: "Every architectural decision is a trade-off. NoSQL gives you scale but costs you joins."

Related Terms

• Implementation
• Hexagonal Architecture
• Domain-Driven Design
• Clean Architecture
• Abstract Class
• Abstract Factory Pattern
• Abstract Method
• Adapter
• System Architecture
• Testability