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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
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
Enterprise Architecture Design and the Integrated Architecture Framework
I’ve recently been catching up on the Microsoft Architecture Journal. This is an occasional MS publication, which can be downloaded from the .NET Architecture Center. It’s got a lot of good articles, with a software architecture and process focus. Of … Continue reading
Blogger Me!
My blog is now fully live. My Thoughts on the World, and the articles in AgileArchitect.org, are now available via an RSS feed. For the technically inclined, I’ve built my blog using a combination of VB.NET, Active Server Pages, and … Continue reading
Business Flexibility
The business equivalents of expansion capabilities like the spare slots in a desktop PC Continue reading
A Fast Diff Algorithm
An implementation of a Diff algorithm in VB.NET, with various techniques to improve performance Continue reading
Architects – Masters of Order and Unorder?
A consideration of how an architect should handle complex or chaotic behaviour, using the Cynefin framework Continue reading
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