Category Archives: Thoughts on the World
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Cirrus Minor – A New Architecture Site
Arnon Rotem-Gal-Oz has set up an interesting new site / blog dedicated to software architecture. Of particular note, he’s trying to put some detail on the architecture “process” which is often negelcted as a single box on the development process … Continue reading
Domain-Specific Languages
There seems to be quite a lot of activity on the “Domain Specific Language” front at the moment. Martin Fowler published “Language Workbenches: The Killer-App for Domain Specific Languages?”, in which he concludes that the common programming pattern of setting … Continue reading
The Fear Premium
In an interesting echo of my last piece (Why Software Isn’t Like Building Construction), Scott Ambler has analysed bureaucratic processes as a response to management fear about what can go wrong in software development. His conclusion is that these processes … Continue reading
Why Software Isn’t Like Building Construction
Many software development and management methods are founded on a basic assumption – that constructing software is rather like building a bridge or a house. Once we’ve “done the design”, actually generating the software ought to be a completely predictable, … Continue reading
Application Development Strategies
I recently attended a day of the Butler Group “Application Development Strategies” Symposium. I’ve just posted a short report on some of the more interesting discussions and presentations. Almost all of the presentations shared a reminder that we still have … Continue reading
Review – My Early Life
I’ve just posted my review of this wonderfull book, by one of the world’s greatest leaders. The book is exciting, inspiring and, most of all, fun. I urge you to read it (and my review)! Continue reading
The Laws of Identity
Microsoft have just published an excellent paper by Kim Cameron discussing the characteristics of an “identity metasystem” which must evolve if we are to have proper trust in the Internet and interactions which take place through it. The paper is … Continue reading
Growing a Language
I’ve just read a wonderful paper by Guy L Steele, “Growing a Language“. He argues strongly that programming languages must be “small”, but able to grow. Such a language will have a relatively simple structure, syntactic rules, and a small … Continue reading
Enterprise Integration Patterns
Integration, like other design activities, can benefit from sharing ideas and proven strategies in the form of patterns. An excellent starting point is Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolf’s Enterprise Integration Patterns website and book. In my recent work I’ve discovered … Continue reading
I Told You So
In Extensibility Points, Gregor Hohpe describes architecture as a guessing game, trying to understand future changes to a business, and designing a system to cater for those changes. He’s written a good article on types of extensibility and where they … Continue reading
Web Service Challenges
In a recent article, Gregor Hohpe asks “Is SOA Like Drunk Driving?” In our attempts to address the shortcomings of component-based development have we “swung too far” and introduced new problems? One recent experience suggests to me that we may … Continue reading
Blogging: What It Is and How It Works
Another good article published in the Microsoft Architecture Journal: If you don’t fully understand what a Weblog (or “Blog”) is, how it works, or what it may mean to you and your business, then this is for you. The first … Continue reading
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