Frameworks promise reuse and efficiency, but designing them well requires careful decisions about what to include and, perhaps even more importantly, what to leave out. In this interview from the Software Architecture Gathering 2025, Peter Hruschka, independent consultant, trainer, author, and co-founder of iSAQB and IREB, shares lessons from decades of working with embedded systems and software architecture. He discusses why commercial frameworks can become too resource-intensive for constrained environments, how a “framework of frameworks” can provide greater flexibility, and why discovering the right abstractions remains one of the hardest tasks in architecture.

Key Takeaways:

1. General-purpose frameworks can be too large and resource-intensive for embedded systems.
2. A modular “framework of frameworks” lets teams use only the capabilities they actually need.
3. Good interfaces should be easy to use and hard to misuse.
4. Valuable abstractions often emerge through repeated real-world use and refactoring.
5. Modern systems increasingly require teams to combine embedded and cloud expertise.

Peter Hruschka shows that successful framework design is less about anticipating every possible requirement and more about finding useful abstractions, keeping responsibilities separate, and designing clear interfaces. He also highlights how the once-distinct worlds of embedded and cloud systems are beginning to converge through technologies such as edge computing, AI-based cloud services, and over-the-air updates. This makes a mix of expertise increasingly valuable, while clear documentation and communication remain essential for connecting different architectural domains. Watch the full interview below to discover Peter’s insights into building frameworks that remain focused, reusable, and fit for purpose.