The Software Architect Elevator

Foreword by Simon Brown
Foreword by David Knott
About This Book
    A Chief Architect’s Life: It’s Not That Lonely at the Top
    What Will I Learn?
    Is It Proven to Work?
    Tell Me a Story
    Conventions Used in This Book
    Staying Up-to-Date
    O’Reilly Online Learning
    How to Contact Us
    Acknowledgments
I. Architects
    What Architects Are Not
    Many Kinds of Architects
    Architects Deal with Nonrequirements
    Measuring an Architect’s Value
    Architects as Change Agents
1. The Architect Elevator
    The Architect Elevator
    Some Organizations Have More Floors Than Others
    Not a One-Way Street
    High-Speed Elevators
    Other Passengers
    The Dangers of Riding the Elevator
    Flattening the Building
2. Movie-Star Architects
    The Matrix: The Master Planner
    Edward Scissorhands: The Gardener
    Vanishing Point: The Guide
    The Wizard of Oz
    Superhero? Superglue!
    Making the Call
3. Architects Live in the First Derivative
    Rate of Change Defines Architecture
    Change = Business as Unusual?
    Varying Rates of Change
    A Software System’s First Derivative
    Designing for the First Derivative
    Confidence Brings Speed
    Rate of Change Trade-Offs
    Multispeed Architectures
    The Second Derivative
    Rate of Change for Architects
4. Enterprise Architect or Architect in the Enterprise?
    Enterprise Architecture
    Connecting Business and IT
    IT Is from Mars, Business Is from Venus
    Value-Driven Architecture
        Fools with tools
    Visit All Floors
5. An Architect Stands on Three Legs
    Skill, Impact, Leadership
        Skill
        Impact
        Leadership
    A Chair Can’t Stand on Two Legs
    The Virtuous Cycle
    You Spin Me Right Round…
    Architect as Last Stop?
6. Making Decisions
    The Law of Small Numbers
    Bias
    Priming
    Micromort
    Model Thinking
    IT Decisions
    Avoiding Decisions
7. Question Everything
    Five Whys
    Whys Reveal Decisions and Assumptions
    A Workshop for Every Question
    No Free Pass
II. Architecture
    Beyond Software Architecture
    Three Kinds of Architecture
    There Always Is an Architecture
    The Value of Architecture
    Principles Drive Decisions
    Vertical Cohesion
    Architecting the Real World
        Architecture in the Enterprise
8. Is This Architecture?
    Defining Software Architecture
    Architectural Decisions
    Fundamental Decisions Needn’t Be Complicated
    Fit for Purpose
    Passing the Test
9. Architecture Is Selling Options
    Reversing Irreversible Decision Making
    Deferring Decisions with Options
    Options Have Value
    An Architecture Option: Elasticity
    Strike Prices
    Uncertainty Increases an Option’s Value
    Time Is Fleeting
    Real Options
    Arbitrage
    Agile and Architecture
    Evolutionary Architecture
    Amplifying Metaphors
10. Every System Is Perfect…
    Heater as a System
    Feedback Loops
    Organized Complexity
    System Effects
    Understanding System Behavior
    Influencing System Behavior
    Systems Resist Change
11. Code Fear Not!
    Fear of Code
    Good Intentions Don’t Lead to Good Results
    Levels of Abstraction: Simplicity Versus Flexibility
    When Are We Configuring?
        Model Versus Representation
        Code or Data? Or Both?
        Deployment at Design-Time Versus Runtime
    Higher-Level Programming
    Configuration Programming
    Configuration Hiding as Code?
12. If You Never Kill Anything, You Will Live Among Zombies
    Legacy
    Fear of Change
    Hoping for the Best Isn’t a Strategy
    Version Upgrades
    Run Versus Change
    Planned Obsolescence
    If It Hurts, Do It More Often
    Culture of Change
13. Never Send a Human to Do a Machine’s Job
    Automate Everything!
    It’s Not Only About Efficiency
    Repeatability Grows Confidence
    Self-Service
    Beyond Self-Service
    Automation Is Not a One-Way Street
    Explicit Knowledge Is Good Knowledge
    A Place for Humans
14. If Software Eats the World, Better Use Version Control!
    SDX: Software-Defined Anything
    The Loomers’ Riot?
    Software Developers Don’t Undo, They Re-Create
    Melt the Snowflakes
    Automated Quality Checks
    Use Proper Language
    Software Eats the World, One Revision at a Time
15. A4 Paper Doesn’t Stifle Creativity
    A4 Paper
    Product Standards Restrict, Interface Standards Enable
    Platform Standards
    Layers Versus Platforms
    Digital Discipline
    Avoid the Skipping Stones
    One Size Might Not Fit All Tastes
16. The IT World Is Flat
    Vendors’ Middle Kingdoms
    Plotting Your World Map
    Defining Borders
    Charting Territory
    Product Philosophy Compatibility Check
    Shifting Territory
17. Your Coffee Shop Doesn’t Use Two-Phase Commit
    Hotto Cocoa o Kudasai
    Correlation
    Exception Handling
        Write Off
        Retry
        Compensating Action
    Transactions
    Backpressure
    Conversations
    Canonical Data Model
    Welcome to the Real World!
III. Communication
    You Can’t Manage What You Can’t Understand
    Getting Attention
    Pushing (Less) Paper
    Isn’t the Code the Documentation?
    Choosing the Right Words
    Communication Tools
18. Explaining Stuff
    Build a Ramp, Not a Cliff
    Mind the Gap
    First, Create a Language
    Consistent Level of Detail
    I Wanted to Have Liked To, but Didn’t Dare Be Allowed
19. Show the Kids the Pirate Ship!
    Grab Attention
    Build Excitement
    Focus on Purpose
    Pirate Ship Leads to Better Decisions
    The Product Box
    Designing the Pirate Ship
        Show Context
        The Content on the Inside
        Consider the Audience
    Pack Some Pathos
    Play Is Work
20. Writing for Busy People
    Writing Scales
    Quality Versus Impact
    “In the Hand”—First Impressions Count
    The Curse of Writing: Linearity
    A Good Paper Is Like the Movie Shrek
    Making It Easy for the Reader
    Lists, Sets, Null Pointers, and Symbol Tables
    In der Kürze liegt die Würze4
    Unit Testing Technical Papers
    Technical Memos
    The Pen Is Mightier Than the Sword, but Not Mightier Than Corporate Politics
21. Emphasis Over Completeness
    Diagrams Are Models
    The Five-Second Test
    A Pop Quiz
    Simple Language
    Diagramming Basics
        Avoid the Ant Font
        Maximize the Signal-to-Noise Ratio
        Let Arrows Point
        Legends Are Crutches
        Layer Visually
    The Style of Elements
    Making a Statement
    Twenty Slides, One Story
    Nothing Is Confusing in and of Itself
22. Diagram-Driven Design
    Presentation Skills: More Than a Wide Stance
    Diagramming as Design Technique
    Designing with Diagrams
    Diagram-Driven Design Techniques
        Establish a Visual Vocabulary and Viewpoints
        Limit the Levels of Abstraction
        Reduce to the Essence
        Find Balance and Harmony
        Indicate Degrees of Uncertainty
    Diagrams Are Art
    No Silver Bullet (Point)
23. Drawing the Line
    Behold the Line!
    The Metamodel
    The Semantics of Semantics
    Elements—Relationship—Behavior
    Architecture Diagrams
    UML
    Beware of Extremes
24. Sketching Bank Robbers
    Everyone Saw the Perpetrator
    A Police Sketch Artist
    Sketching Architectures
        The System Metaphor
        Viewpoints
    Visuals
    Architecture Therapy
    That’s Wrong! Do It Again!
25. Software Is Collaboration
    Who Says Software Is for Computers Only?
    Version Control
    Single Source of Truth
    Trunk-Based Development
    Always Be Ready to Ship
    Style Versus Substance
    Transparency
    Pairing
    Resistance
IV. Organizations
    Organizational Architecture: The Static View
    Organizational Architecture: The Dynamic View
    The Matrix (Not the Movie)
    Organizations as Systems
    Organizations as People
    Navigating Large Organizations
26. Reverse-Engineering Organizations
    Dissecting IT Slogans
    Unknown Beliefs
    Beliefs Are Proven Until Disproven
    Unlearning Old Habits
    Common IT Beliefs
        Speed and Quality Are Opposed (“Quick and Dirty”)
        Quality Can Be Added Later
        All Problems Can Be Solved with More People or Money
        Following a Proven Process Leads to Proven Good Results
        Late Changes Are Expensive or Impossible
        Agility Opposes Discipline
        The Unexpected Is Undesired
    Reprogramming the Organization
    Handed-Down Beliefs
27. Control Is an Illusion
    The Illusion
    Control Circuits
    A Two-Way Street
    Problems on the Way Up
    Smart Control
    Saupreiß, ned so Damischer
    Actual Control: Autonomy
    Controlling the Control Loop
28. They Don’t Build ’Em Quite Like That Anymore
    Why IT Architects Love Pyramids
    Organizational Pyramids
    No Pyramid Without Pharaoh
    No One Lives in a Foundation
    Building Pyramids from the Top
    Celebrating the Base Layer
    Living in Pyramids
    It Always Can Get Worse
    Building Modern Structures
29. Black Markets Are Not Efficient
    Black Markets to the Rescue
    Black Markets Are Rarely Efficient
    You Cannot Outsource a Black Market
    Beating the Black Market
    Feedback and Transparency
30. Scaling an Organization
    Component Design—Personal Productivity
    Avoid Sync Points—Meetings Don’t Scale
    Interrupts Interrupt—Phone Calls
    Piling on Instead of Backing off
    Asynchronous Communication—Email, Chat, and More
    Asking Doesn’t Scale—Build a Cache!
    Poorly Set Domain Boundaries—Excessive Alignment
    Self-Service Is Better Service
    Staying Human
31. Slow Chaos Is Not Order
    Fast Versus Agile
    Speed and Discipline
    Fast and Good
    Slow-Moving Chaos
    ITIL to the Rescue?
    Objectives Require Discipline
    The Way Out
32. Governance Through Inception
    Living in Perfect Harmony
    The Value of Standards
    Interface Standards
    Mapping Standards
    Governance by Decree
    Governance Through Infrastructure
        Runtime Governance
    Inception
    The Emperor’s New Clothes
    Governance Through Necessity
V. Transformation
    Change Is Risky
    Not All Change Is Transformation
    Bursting the Boiler
    Why Me?
33. No Pain, No Change!
    Stages of Transformation
    Digital Transformation Stages
    Wishful Thinking Sells Snake Oil
    Tuning the Engine
    Help Along the Way
    The Pain of Not Changing
    Getting Over the Hump
34. Leading Change
    A Tractor Passing the Race Car
    Setting Course
    Venturing Off the Mainland
    Burning the Ships
    Offshore Platforms
    The Island of Sanity
    Skunkworks That Works
    Leaving Your Island Will Get Your Feet Wet
    The Country of the Blind
35. Economies of Speed
    30,000 Times Faster
    Old Economies of Scale
    Behold the Flow!
    Cost of Delay
    The Value and Cost of Predictability
    The Value and Cost of Avoiding Duplication
    How to Make the Switch?
36. The Infinite Loop
    Build-Measure-Learn
    Digital RPMs
    Old-World Hurdles
    Looping in Externals
    Pivoting the Layer Cake
    Maintaining Cohesion
37. You Can’t Fake IT
    Laying the Foundation
    Feedback Cycles
    Delivering on Your Promises
    Customer Centricity
    Cocreating IT Services
    Eat Your Own Dog Food
    Digital Mindset
    The Stack Fallacy
38. Money Can’t Buy Love
    Innovator’s Dilemma
    Beware of the HiPPO
    Overhead and Tolerated Inefficiency
    Hollowed-Out IT
    Excessive Dependencies
    Paying More May Get You Less
    Changing Culture from Within
39. Who Likes Standing in Line?
    Looking Between the Activities
    A Little Bit of Queuing Theory
    Finding Queues
    Cutting the Line
    Making Queues Visible
    Message Queues Aren’t All Bad
40. Thinking in Four Dimensions
    Living Along a Line
    Quality Versus Speed
    More Degrees of Freedom
    Changing the Rules of the Game
    Inverting the Curve
    What Quality?
    Losing a Dimension
VI. Epilogue: Architecting IT Transformation
    Game On
    Transforming from the Bottom Up
    Transforming from the Inside Out
    From Ivory Tower Resident to Corporate Savior
41. All I Have to Offer Is the Truth
    Nothing But the Truth
    Digital Paradise?
    Don’t Try This at Home
    Abandon Ship
    Looks Are Deceiving
    Distress Signals
Index