Extensibility is the ability for a system to be extended with new functionality without requiring major changes to the existing system. It's a key attribute for any software that needs to grow and adapt over time, like a startup that pivots every other week or a big tech company that keeps bolting on new features to stay relevant.

How to use it in a sentence

• The lead architect keeps going on about extensibility, but I'm not sure how much that matters when we're still trying to get the core product to work reliably.

• When the sales team asked if we could add 27 new fields to the customer profile screen by next week, I had to give them a crash course on extensibility and technical debt.

If you actually want to learn more...

• Martin Fowler's article on Consumer-Driven Contracts dives into strategies for evolving services while managing coupling between providers and consumers, including extensibility patterns like schema extension points.

• This collection of articles on application integration covers various aspects of connecting systems together, which often requires thinking about extensibility to accommodate future changes and new integration scenarios.

• For a humorous take on the history of enterprise integration and the role of extensibility, check out Martin Fowler's talk "Does My Bus Look Big in This?"

Note: the Developer Dictionary is in Beta. Please direct feedback to skye@statsig.com.