Lesson 1.33: Reviewing a design before it's built
Fixing a design flaw on paper costs minutes; fixing it in production costs a project. An architecture review reads a proposed system as components in zones and the data flows between them, then checks each flow and store against the organisation's standard: encryption across boundaries, authentication on every flow, retention for personal data, minimum data to third parties. In the lab you review the design for a new partner returns service, find four standard violations and write findings the team can act on.
19 min
You will learn to
- Read a design as zones, components and flows
- Find flows crossing boundaries without encryption
- Find unauthenticated flows and anonymous writes
- Check retention and data minimisation
- Write actionable review findings
Key terms
- Trust boundary
- A line between zones with different trust levels; data crossing it must be protected and checked.
- Data flow
- Data moving between two components, with a protocol and an authentication method.
- Data minimisation
- Collecting and sharing only the personal data needed for the purpose.
- Storage limitation
- Keeping personal data no longer than needed.
- Signed URL
- A short-lived link granting one specific upload or download.
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