http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/05/22/delegation.html I briefly mentioned delegation in my post yesterday about authority and I wanted to expand on this further. I talked about delegation in the context of having the authority to make decisions - you don't actually have to make all of the decisions ... en Simon Brown Tue, 29 May 2007 18:46:31 GMT Pebble (http://pebble.sourceforge.net) http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/05/22/delegation.html#comment1180464391007 In government, this is known as the principle of subsidiarity: a central authority should have a subsidiary function, performing only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. So it takes a different, but complementary, viewpoint from the Minimalist Architecture Principle by asking what must be done at a higher level to ensure the effectiveness of local action. That's the flip side: what cannot be delegated. For more, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subsidiarity Dan http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/05/22/delegation.html#comments http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/05/22/delegation.html#comment1180464391007 Tue, 29 May 2007 18:46:31 GMT http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/05/22/delegation.html#comment1179876476732 Great point Simon. This falls into the category of making sure we're spending our time on the things that really matter.<br /><br /> In Bredemeyer's <a href="http://www.bredemeyer.com/HotSpot/20040428EASoapBox.htm">"Guiding Principles for Enterprise Architects"</a>, he describes the "Minimalist Architecture Principle":<br /><br /> "Essentially, the Minimalist Architecture Principle says 'if a decision can reasonably be made by someone with a more narrow scope of responsibility, defer the decision to that person or group.' This means that architects only make decisions that require the overall perspective and authority that the architect has. If a decision has local impact, then the architect has no need to mess with it. If the decision has broad impact, and the impact has highly strategic consequences, then the decision fits the minimalist architecture criterion."<br /><br /> Of course, we'll want to keep in mind that delegation does not allow us to abdicate.<br /><br /> Brian<br /> <a href="http://blog.softwarearchitecture.com">http://blog.softwarearchitecture.com</a> Brian Sondergaard http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/05/22/delegation.html#comments http://www.codingthearchitecture.com/2007/05/22/delegation.html#comment1179876476732 Tue, 22 May 2007 23:27:56 GMT