Architecture is a Poor Metaphor for Software Design

I've recently been thinking quite hard about software architecture. Not just about UML diagrams and classical design patterns and other technical gubbins, but more and more about what it really means to be "doing" software architecture, and moreover to be doing it well.

And it seems to me that architecture is actually a very poor metaphor for software design, so this is an attempt to get my thoughts in order on that front.

Book Recommendation: 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

I'll interrupt this "slow blog month" with a quick book recommendation. I recently picked up a copy of "97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know", edited by Richard Monson-Hafael, and published by O'Reilly, and I think that you should too!

While the title suggests that the target audience might be limited to software architects, I really think that everyone involved with the software development process could benefit from reading the book - from the junior developer just getting started on his or her career, to the visionary technology executive at the top.

"97 Things..." is structured as a collection of ninety-seven pieces, none more than a couple of pages long, by about thirty or so different authors. It's not an especially technical book - there are no UML diagrams or code examples, say. It's more like the collected wisdom of a bunch of people who have been designing and building software for many, many years.

There are a couple of themes that emerge from the essays, both of which rang true with me.