--- title: Removability over Maintainability | daily.dev description: Maintainability is often treated as the ultimate goal in software design, but the author argues that removability is a more valuable property to optimize for.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/removability-over-maintainability-t73syoinz twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Removability over Maintainability | daily.dev og:description: Maintainability is often treated as the ultimate goal in software design, but the author argues that removability is a more valuable property to optimize for.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/removability-over-maintainability-t73syoinz og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/t73SyOINZ.png og:image:alt: Removability over Maintainability og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Removability over Maintainability **[Event-Driven by Oskar Dudycz](https://daily.dev/sources/event-driven-io)** · 8 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary Maintainability is often treated as the ultimate goal in software design, but the author argues that removability is a more valuable property to optimize for. Drawing on Donella Meadows' systems thinking, Barry O'Reilly's Residuality Theory, and real-world examples like Uber and Amazon Prime, the post makes the case that systems should be designed so components can be easily removed or replaced. This enables teams to discard bad ideas, pivot quickly, and survive unpredictable changes. The author reflects on a design review process that, while well-intentioned, reduced diversity and slowed iteration. Instead, teams should be given autonomy within defined boundaries, held accountable for decisions, and allowed to iterate fast. CQRS is cited as one technical approach that supports removability through vertical slices. The core insight is that early-stage systems may never reach the maturity where maintainability matters, so survival and adaptability should come first. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Producing a Better Software Architecture with Residuality Theory](https://daily.dev/posts/producing-a-better-software-architecture-with-residuality-theory-g5ojr6yx1) · InfoQ · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [A Great Programmer Removes, Doesn’t Add](https://daily.dev/posts/a-great-programmer-removes-doesn-t-add-jwx9klioe) · Codemotion · 142 upvotes · 30 comments --- Tags: [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#architecture](https://daily.dev/tags/architecture), [#technical-debt](https://daily.dev/tags/technical-debt) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/removability-over-maintainability-t73syoinz) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Removability over Maintainability","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/removability-over-maintainability-t73syoinz","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/removability-over-maintainability-t73syoinz"},"datePublished":"2026-06-17T11:26:01.452Z","dateModified":"2026-06-17T11:29:38.889Z","description":"Maintainability is often treated as the ultimate goal in software design, but the author argues that removability is a more valuable property to optimize for....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/56b6c77f0360b83659a9b5256e95e7a7?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/56b6c77f0360b83659a9b5256e95e7a7?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Event-Driven by Oskar Dudycz","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Event-Driven by Oskar Dudycz","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--unDKCFQ0--/f_auto,q_auto/v1781695550/logos/event-driven-io?_a=BAMAMiWQ0","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/event-driven-io"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/removability-over-maintainability-t73syoinz","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"career,architecture,technical-debt","timeRequired":"PT8M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Event-Driven by Oskar Dudycz","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/event-driven-io"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Removability over Maintainability"}]} ```