This chapter covers:
- Discovering what micro frontends are
- Comparing the micro frontends approach to other architectures
- Pointing out the importance of scaling frontend development
- Recognizing the challenges that this architecture introduces
I’ve been working as a software developer on many projects over the last 15 years. In this time, I had multiple chances to observe a pattern that repeats itself throughout our industry: Working with a handful of people on a new project feels fantastic. Every developer has an overview of all functionality. Features get built quickly. Discussing topics with your coworkers is straightforward. This changes when the project’s scope and the team size increases. Suddenly one developer can’t know every edge of the system anymore. Knowledge silos emerge inside your team. Complexity rises: making a change on one part of the system may have unexpected effects on other parts. Discussions inside the team are more cumbersome. Before, team members made decisions at the coffee machine. Now you need formal meetings to get everyone on the same page. Frederick Brooks described this in the book The Mythical Man-Month back in 1975. At some point adding new developers to a team does not increase productivity.