Search results

	Title and summary	Date/time
1	Features vs Behaviour I've recently had a bug I raised with a third party software supplier downgraded from high to low importance. No one likes having their bugs downgraded (it probably shows you what a nerd I am by taking this personally) but what surprised me was the ...	25-Nov-2011 22:13:00
2	Is caching an 'Architectural Smell'? Kent Beck introduced the concept of "Code Smells" while working on Martin Fowler's famous Refactoring book and I think that most people would agree with many of the stinks he identified. Many of us probably also use tools such as checkstyle to ...	02-Oct-2011 20:24:00
3	Speaking at the Software Architect 2010 conference Just a quick post to say that I'm speaking at the Software Architect 2010 conference in London next month. I'm running a pre-conference workshop, a post-conference workshop and two technical breakout sessions as follows. Software Architecture in a Day ...	30-Sep-2010 20:12:00
4	Enterprise Software Developer training course I'm pleased to say that, from September, I'll be running a new training course called Enterprise Software Developer. Where Software Architecture for Developers focusses on the architecture and design elements of software projects, the new course expands ...	14-Jul-2010 11:43:50
5	Fail Safe One of the most misunderstood engineering terms is 'fail safe'. Most people from a non-engineering background (including many software developers) believe it means something won't fail. Last week even the Economist used it incorrectly. A 'fail safe' ...	23-Mar-2010 21:13:00
6	What is the big picture? Whenever we talk about software architecture, undoubtedly we'll end up talking about the "big picture", but what exactly does this mean? Read the full essay...	24-Feb-2010 21:26:00
7	Designing Maintainable Systems I'm currently involved in a project to upgrade a third party piece of software and it's apparent that when the software was originally designed, the upgrade process was not considered. This became obvious when we totaled up the time required to perform, ...	29-Jan-2010 13:04:00
8	Software architecture for developers We've been running our software architecture course for a couple of years now and although we've consistently received very positive feedback, we're always looking for ways to improve it. And that's exactly what we've done over the past few weeks. ...	29-Oct-2009 16:46:15
9	Strategy rather than code There are many different types of architecture and many names to describe the same thing. This essay summarises application, system and enterprise architecture before looking at whether enterprise architecture is the next logical step for people on the ...	26-Oct-2009 21:13:12
10	Re-evaluating software architecture Somebody asked a question at my recent BCS session that got me thinking about software architecture and whether we need it. Why do we need this new software architecture stuff? We've managed fine until now and projects *have* been successful. Some ...	08-Dec-2008 20:53:27
11	.NET systems need software architecture too Although most of my experience has been building Java systems, I have worked alongside a few .NET development teams over the past few years, particularly in the banks where many of the new systems being built make use of a range of technologies. One ...	24-Nov-2008 21:20:43
12	Becoming more architecturally aware - part 2 Last time I talked about how we need to understand how application frameworks are designed and work behind the scenes in order to produce code that is consistent and compliant with the overall architectural principles. The second aspect that we need to ...	28-Oct-2008 20:18:49
13	Becoming more architecturally aware - part 1 In my Mind the gap essay and Why Software Projects Fail presentation, I talk about how we as developers should be more architecturally aware if we are to bridge the gap between the code and the overall design. I include myself in this statement because ...	17-Oct-2008 10:06:00
14	What is architecture? Architecture is a widely-used term within software development yet is very hard to define rigorously. Indeed, it changes meaning from domain to domain, company to company, project to project and even from employee to employee. Read the full essay in ...	02-May-2008 11:53:54
15	Why do so many technology projects fail? The Financial Times published an interesting article earlier in the week entitled Perspectives: Why do so many technology projects fail? (registration required) detailing a court action between BSkyB and EDS. In summary, it's about the failure to ...	23-Nov-2007 14:48:00
16	Real Systems Develop Organically Often software isn't designed and built like a bridge. It's not engineered and left in a fixed state. It's more like a city - growing from a small hamlet into a major city like London. Most of London wasn't planned, it just sort of happened. ...	19-Jul-2007 09:55:37
17	Is Enterprise Architecture the next step? Following on from Role titles across the world, I wanted to present a diagram that I've had in my head for a little while but never got around to putting on paper. I think architecture at the application and system level is pretty well defined, with an ...	18-May-2007 11:28:13
18	Role titles across the world We all know that the meaning of the "technical architect" role is ambiguous and varies depending on who you talk to, but what about the name of the role itself? Here's a list of the role titles I've come across here in the UK, grouped where I ...	16-May-2007 12:33:00
19	What is architecture? Here's a short definition of architecture that somebody made after a presentation Paul and I did last week. Architecture is the stuff that you can't refactor in an afternoon. I got a kind of "yeah, that's actually about right" feeling. What do you ...	15-Feb-2006 14:51:43
20	Enterprise Architecture Frameworks The Institute for Enterprise Architecture recently published the results of their web-based survey of Enterprise Architecture trends for 2005. So what's new, and who cares?	12-Feb-2006 11:47:31