If Software Systems Were Human: Thinking About Human-Oriented Architecture (HOA)
Most systems don’t collapse because they’re “badly written” —
they slowly turn into something nobody dares to touch.
If you’ve ever maintained a system that’s more than three years old, this feeling is probably familiar:
The features still work
Bugs can still be fixed
But touching the core logic makes everyone nervous
We’ve tried layered architecture, Clean Architecture, and DDD — yet the same problems keep resurfacing.
So I started asking a different question:
Why don’t our software systems behave like living organisms?
- The problem isn’t technology — it’s how we understand systems
Most traditional architectures are designed from a technical perspective:
Controller / Service / Repository
UI / Domain / Infrastructure
They look elegant at the beginning. But over time:
Controllers become “god objects”
Services accumulate business logic
State leaks everywhere
Boundaries slowly disappear
The root cause isn’t that these architectures are wrong.
It’s that:
They don’t align well with human intuition.
- A counterintuitive but natural idea: treat the system as a human
The human body is one of the most successful complex systems we know:
Clear structure
Well-defined responsibilities
Built-in error handling
Long-term evolution
So what if:
Instead of starting from layers, we treated a software system as a human being?
This idea is the foundation of
Human-Oriented Architecture (HOA).
- System as a human, modules as organs
In HOA:
A software system is a complete human being.
This “person” is closed and protected — the outside world cannot arbitrarily access internal organs.
Mapping organs to architectural roles
Human Organ Architectural Role Responsibility
Skin UI / Presentation User interaction & feedback
Bones Structural skeleton Stability and structural constraints
Mouth Interface layer Input reception & protocol translation
Hands Use-case layer Expressing user intent & orchestration
Stomach Business core Business rules & computation
Brain State & decision center Global state & complex decisions
Hypothalamus Coordination center Flow control & command dispatch
Kidneys Error handling system Exception filtering & recovery
Blood vessels Data channels Data and event flow
This is not a playful metaphor —
it is a strict responsibility model.
- How a user action flows through the “human system”
Take a typical user operation:
The user interacts through the skin (UI)
Input enters via the mouth (interface)
The hands (use cases) interpret user intent
The hypothalamus coordinates the process
The stomach (business core) applies business rules
The brain updates state and makes decisions
The kidneys handle errors and anomalies
Data flows back through the blood vessels
The skin presents the final result
Each step is explicit, traceable — and cannot overstep its authority.
- Why this model resists architectural decay
HOA naturally prevents common anti-patterns:
❌ Controllers containing business logic
(mouths don’t think)
❌ Services becoming god objects
(stomachs don’t command the body)
❌ Global try-catch blocks
(errors have kidneys)
❌ State scattered everywhere
(only the brain decides)
When you evaluate code through the lens of a “human body,”
bad design often feels instinctively wrong.
- How does HOA relate to Clean Architecture or DDD?
HOA is not a replacement for existing architectures.
More precisely:
Clean Architecture tells you how to divide code.
HOA helps you understand what a system should look like.
HOA is a higher-level architectural mental model.
- Where HOA fits — and where it doesn’t Suitable for:
Long-lived systems
Complex frontend state management
Data-heavy and orchestration-heavy domains
Not suitable for:
One-off scripts
Very small demos
Systems with minimal architectural constraints
- Final thoughts
Good architecture doesn’t try to look clever —
it feels as natural as a living organism.
Human-Oriented Architecture is not a silver bullet,
and not a framework.
It’s simply an attempt to use the system we understand best — ourselves
to stay clear-minded and disciplined when facing software complexity.
If HOA makes you pause and ask:
“Would this make sense in a healthy human body?”
Then it has already served its purpose.
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