Tightly Coupled Architecture

Tightly coupled architecture is an architectural style where a number of application components are interdependent (the opposite paradigm of loosely coupled architectures). This means that a change in one component will likely impact other components. It is generally easier to implement than more loosely coupled architectural styles, but can leave a system more vulnerable to cascading failures. They also tend to require coordinated rollouts of components which can become a drag on developer productivity.

Tightly coupled application architectures are a fairly traditional way of building applications. While not necessarily consistent with all the best practices of microservice development they can be useful in specific circumstances. They tend to be faster and simpler to implement and much like monolithic applications they can speed up the initial development cycle.