Matthew R. McBride
ABSTRACT
Software architecture is a distinct and developing discipline in the software profession. Many practitioners have apparently entered the field with little effort; adding the word "architect" to a title is easy to do. However, beneath the surface appearance, distinct approaches and toolsets are required to succeed. Reports of IT overspending and project failures emphasize the fact that these skills must be leveraged and developed. The practical application of this growing body of knowledge will continue to play an important role in the maturing of our profession, and its ability to deliver effective solutions. The software architect possesses a unique perspective and mental framework that guides the development of software systems. Additionally, strong interpersonal skills are vital to the software architect's success. In this paper, I explore the unique approaches and characteristics of the successful software architect.
- Alexander, C. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Christopher Alexander: 1977.Google Scholar
- Alexander, C. The Origins of Pattern Theory, the Future of the Theory, and the Generation of a Living World. Cited from a speech given at The 1996 ACM Conference on Object-Oriented Programs, Systems, Languages, and Applications (OOPSLA), 1996.Google Scholar
- Brooks, F. The Mythical Man-Month, Anniversary Edition. Addison-Wesley, Boston, Massachusetts, 1995. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Clavell, J. editor. The Art of War. Delacorte Press, New York, New York, 1983.Google Scholar
- Fowler, M. Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture. Addison-Wesley, Boston, Massachusetts, 2002. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Fowler, M. Is Design Dead? Martin Fowler: 2001. Available from world wide web: (http://www.martinfowler.com/articles/designDead.html).Google Scholar
- Gamma, E., Helm, R., Johnson, R., Vlissides, J. Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software. Addison-Wesley, Reading, Massachusetts, 1995. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Glass, Robert L. Sorting Out Software Complexity. Communications of the ACM (November 2002), 19--20. Google ScholarDigital Library
- Harari, Oren. The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell. McGraw-Hill, New York, New York, 2002.Google Scholar
- IEEE Standard Glossary of Software Engineering Terminology, IEEE Std 610.12-1990. IEEE, New York, New York, 1990.Google Scholar
- OMG Unified Modeling Language Specification. Object Management Group, Needham, Massachusetts, 2003.Google Scholar
- Reifer, Donald J. Let the Numbers Do the Talking. Crosstalk: The Journal of Defense Software Engineering (March 2002), 4--8.Google Scholar
Index Terms
- The software architect: essence, intuition, and guiding principles
Recommendations
Architecture: an emerging core competence for IT professionals
SIGITE '07: Proceedings of the 8th ACM SIGITE conference on Information technology educationWith the emergence of globalization, IT organizations have begun to shift from service organizations to solutions organizations. IT professionals must now mitigate complexity by understanding both the enterprise and IT solutions. An IT professional has ...
Introducing the Pragmatic Architect
A clear understanding of the software architect's role is essential to design sustainable architectures. The first installment of the Pragmatic Architect column therefore outlines the software architect's mission and responsibilities, discusses how ...
The architect's mindset
QoSA'07: Proceedings of the Quality of software architectures 3rd international conference on Software architectures, components, and applicationsSoftware architecture and software architecture practices become increasingly important for information systems since they enable reasoning on the design of the system. The concept of architectural knowledge, i.e. architectural design decisions and the ...
Reviews
Michael G. Murphy
Software architecture is rapidly being recognized as a distinct, important, and evolving discipline in the field of software engineering. This paper explores the unique approaches and characteristics of the successful software architect. After defining software architecture as starting with the organizational structure of a software system, the author goes on to identify guiding principles behind architectural decisions: mitigate unbounded complexity; manage functional requirements; communicate effectively with developers, senior managers, chief executives, project managers, and customers; embrace leadership; pay attention to nonfunctional requirements; and bring a well-stocked toolkit that includes patterns and idioms, frameworks, and best practices. The paper is well written and well organized, with relevant examples, figures, quotes, and literature references. More detail on three design efforts that are mentioned at the beginning and end of the paper would have been helpful in convincing any skeptics of the efficacy of software architecture in improving software design, development, and evolution. The paper is an easy read that will generally reaffirm the feelings of believers in software architecture, and give others something to think about. Online Computing Reviews Service
Access critical reviews of Computing literature here
Become a reviewer for Computing Reviews.
Comments