Reader’s Guide

We have structured this book into five distinct portions. Part One introduces architecture and the various contextual lenses through which it could be viewed. These are the following:

• Technical. What technical role does the software architecture play in the system or systems of which it’s a part?

• Project. How does a software architecture relate to the other phases of a software development life cycle?

• Business. How does the presence of a software architecture affect an organization’s business environment?

• Professional. What is the role of a software architect in an organization or a development project?

Part Two is focused on technical background. Part Two describes how decisions are made. Decisions are based on the desired quality attributes for a system, and Chapters 5–11 describe seven different quality attributes and the techniques used to achieve them. The seven are availability, interoperability, maintainability, performance, security, testability, and usability. Chapter 12 tells you how to add other quality attributes to our seven, Chapter 13 discusses patterns and tactics, and Chapter 14 discusses the various types of modeling and analysis that are possible.

Part Three is devoted to how a software architecture is related to the other portions of the life cycle. Of special note is how architecture can be used in Agile projects. We discuss individually other aspects of the life cycle: requirements, design, implementation and testing, recovery and conformance, and evaluation.

Part Four deals with the business of architecting from an economic perspective, from an organizational perspective, and from the perspective of constructing a series of similar systems.

Part Five discusses several important emerging technologies and how architecture relates to these technologies.