Orchestration vs Choreography

When to use

"Use when coordinating multiple components. Choose orchestration (centralized conductor) for predictable, auditable flows. Choose choreography (distributed peer-to-peer) for flexible, scalable, fault-tolerant systems."

Example

"Orchestration — a workflow engine calls each service in sequence, handling retries and compensation. Choreography — each service publishes events, and other services react independently. Orchestration is easier to debug; choreography is easier to scale."

Common misuse

"Choosing the coordination style based on fashion rather than requirements. Orchestration and choreography each have strengths; the choice depends on the specific trade-offs of predictability, scalability, and fault tolerance."

Also known as

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