Architecture

But everybody believes in something else. Obviously it is not possible to define software architecture by a noun and a constraining descriptive phrase.

The Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute writes:

There is no standard, universally-accepted definition of the term, “software architecture,” although there is no shortage of definitions, either. (Definitions)

When I read through all the definitions, I find definitions that plainly contradict each other. From the definitions it is not clear whether software architecture is a result of some planning (“everything has an architecture”), whether software architecture is by definition “good software architecture” or whether it is something that can be managed at all. At least in some definitions the term stakeholders appears. That implies that (good) software architecture delivers something that is good for the stakeholders.

There are already organizations and special consulting firms dealing with that topic that go into a more detailed and practical approach. I am quite impressed by the material presented on the pages of Bredemeyer Consulting, Bloomington IN.

It is a matter of the viewpoint. If one is responsible for just one application then she has to deal with application architecture. That is rather easy. If someone is responsible for all the applications in a company she has to deal with variety, inhomogenity, with different skill profiles and mainly she has to deal with people. The application portfolio and the programmers in the company are battleground to let architecture become effective. The goal is to have systems achieve a lasting quality and to reduce over all costs for development and maintenance of the total application portfolio. Sub-Optimizations are forbidden.

On this and the related pages I will add my impressions about the long and winding road towards a better architecture.

I am currently lecturing about Software Engineering at the Technical University of Leipzig. You will find more information there.

Last bat not least -

I am a pattern freak. Patterns are used in programming and for many other purposes as well. Patterns stem from the field of “real” architecture. A very nice introduction about patterns, referring to their original introducer Christopher Alexander you will find here: Christopher Alexander:An Introduction for Object-Oriented Designers by Doug Lea.

Another introduction about the primary concepts you will find here: Patterns and Software: Essential Concepts and Terminology by Brad Appleton.

I find a lot of patterns still undiscovered in the discipline of technical management decisions in software engineering. I will eventually draft some, but still that is not my basic job. My basic skill should be to arrive at decisions quickly and to find out the right sources. If you are in a similar position as I am you might find certain links helpful. .