Driving Innovation to Break the Cycle of Poverty
How technical strategy and solutions empower systems change
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Services offered
Full-stack web development, Technical discovery and system audit, Technical strategy, System architecture design.
Outcomes
- Expedited development for feature development and maintenance
- Identified areas across the platform to reduce complexity and streamline operations
- Supported security compliance practice improvements and recommendations
The Story
In October 2021, Able was brought on to support UpTogether’s internal engineering team with specific projects, collaborating with another vendor and the internal team. UpTogether, a platform helping undervalued communities access capital, had operated for over 20 years with minimal focus on technical optimizations. Over time, we became their sole engineering partner, addressing platform-wide projects. In 2023, we conducted a thorough assessment of the software architecture to identify and resolve key system issues.
Assessment Process
The assessment focused on both backend and frontend solutions, analyzing the breadth of existing Python microservices. Additionally, the AWS architecture, Lambdas, API Gateways, scheduled tasks, event handlers, and RDS instances were evaluated. The assessment relied on:
- Internal Engineering team interviews and follow-ups
- Deep dive into the existing documentation
- Technical Audit of Systems
- First-hand knowledge and experiences from the Able team, having already worked on several areas
The assessment was completed by the Tech Lead and a part of the assigned team over the span of three months, as they kept working on new releases and other improvements in parallel.
Key Findings
We provided several high-level recommendations to enhance system performance and streamline operations. We identified the need for modifications to existing services, such as implementing web-hooks and notifications, and advised the deletion of unused code while emphasizing the importance of following the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) principle. Additionally, we suggested better utilization of AWS tools like Cloud Map for service discovery and management. Our recommendations also included adopting best practices for service versioning, dependency management, and security compliance. We conducted an in-depth evaluation of micro-services, highlighting both the benefits and the challenges, including increased operational complexity, data management issues, and communication overhead. As a simpler alternative, we proposed a modular monolith approach, which reduces complexity and streamlines operations. On the front end, we recommended framework updates to achieve a modern stack with less development overhead and advised reducing unnecessary dependencies to further improve efficiency.
Our technical assessment services provide deep insights into your system's architecture and performance, offering tailored recommendations to enhance efficiency and scalability.
Output
The final delivery defined key findings and recommendations, including a detailed comparison of Microservices, Monolith, and Modular Monolith architectures, tailored for UpTogether. Additionally, a comprehensive architectural visualization of the entire system was provided to support the analysis and proposed solutions.
