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Praise for Beyond Software Architecture
“Luke Hohmann is that rare software technologist who views software development from the viewpoint of the end user. He passionately believes that one hour spent with an end user is worth many hours making software architectural choices or days documenting perceived user requirements. Most of what is written about software development focuses on methods used to design and develop robust software. Luke’s latest effort, Beyond Software Architecture, illuminates the more mundane aspects of creating true business solutions by supporting the user throughout the lifecycle of the software product. By concerning himself with creating business value, Luke tightens the connection between a software application and the business function it performs.”
—Bruce BourbonGeneral Partner, Telos Venture Partners
“There are two kinds of people that read the Dilbert comic strip: folks that take a moment to marvel at how accurately it reflects life at their company before moving on to the next comic strip, and folks that think Dilbert is an amusing reminder that high tech companies can and should be better than Dilbert’s world. Anyone in the first group should stick to reading comics. This book is for people in the latter group.”
—Tony NavarreteVice President, Diamondhead Ventures
“Luke brings a proven methodology to the challenge of software development. In Beyond Software Architecture, Luke provides practical and proven techniques that all development executives can employ to improve the productivity of their software organization.”
—G. Bradford SolsoCEO, Taviz Technology
“Beyond Software Architecture is the first book I have read which contains an insider’s perspective of both the business and technical facets of software architecture. This is a great book to get marketers and software managers on the same page!”
—Damon SchechterCEO, LOC Global
author of Delivering the Goods
“There are books on technical architecture and books on product marketing, but few, if any, on how architecture and marketing information must be integrated for world class product development. Beyond Software Architecture provides this valuable bridge between technology and marketing—it explains how to deliver quality products that are profitable in the marketplace.”
—Jim HighsmithDirector, Cutter Consortium
author of Adaptive Software Development
“Product development managers, marketing managers, architects, and technical leads from all functions should read this book. You’ll see a pragmatic view of how to define and use a product architecture throughout a project’s lifecycle and a product's lifetime.”
—Johanna RothmanRothman Consulting Group, Inc.
“Luke Hohmann has captured the essence of product creation in his latest book. He cleverly discusses the need for both the marketing and engineering roles in product creation and ties the two together building a good foundation for understanding and executing successful product creation.”
—Lee SiglerPrincipal, 360 Market View, Inc.
“Finally a book that deals with those often ignored but critical operational issues like licensing, deployment, installation, configuration and support. Beyond Software Architecture is the “What they don't teach you at Harvard Business School” book for anyone who develops software products—or buys them.”
—Mary PoppendieckManaging Director, Agile Alliance
President, Poppendieck LLC
“Luke Hohmann delivers a passionate, articulate wake-up call to software architects: it ain’t just technical any more! Technical architectures have profound business ramifications, and ignoring the business ramifications of portability, usability, configuration, upgrade and release management, security, and other architectural choices can not only lead to project failures, but ultimately to nasty lawsuits from disappointed customers. Beyond Software Architecture is a must-read for successful software product managers!”
—Ed YourdonAuthor of numerous books and articles on software development
“Beyond Software Architecture is not just for software engineering professionals! Executives and product managers will find that the book provides the necessary background to make informed decisions about the software that their companies build. I have found that the book is a useful tool for building consensus between management and engineering, because it discusses business and customer-related issues without delving too deeply into implementation details.”
—David ChaikenVice President, Systems Architecture
AgileTV Corporation
“Product marketing influences product architecture. This shouldn’t be a surprise, yet most texts on software architecture are silent on this fact. This may be because we lack the language for distinguishing between the technical aspects of an architecture and the marketing aspects. Beyond Software Architecture provides the language to draw this important distinction, and provides strategies for overall architectural success.”
—Dave W. Smith“Beyond Software Architecture, as the title implies, successfully addresses the often neglected aspects of developing total solutions. Hohmann demonstrates both passion and depth for the broad set of topics discussed.”
—Craig PriessDirector Product Management, Resonant Software
“Looking through my technical library, it’s apparent that many books are obsolete, casualties of technical innovation and change. There are a few, however, that remain and continue to be relevant. Adding Luke Hohmann’s new book, Beyond Software Architecture: Creating and Sustaining Winning Solutions expands that selection and fills an important gap. It is the first book that I recall presenting a holistic approach to software creation. Going beyond the technical aspects by weaving together and linking critical business and marketing development in such a way to elevate and show how both technical and marketing processes must coalesce to create a winning solution. The topic's importance extends beyond programmers, designers and other technical staff, just as does its content. For marketing professionals, it shows how their decisions and strategies can impact technical decisions. For consumers, it can give them insight on the best ways to work with software manufacturers. For the software entrepreneur, it offers a plan for creating a successful venture. The content, at just the right amount of detail, is presented in easy-to-understand language and in such a way that the information is easy to retain and apply. The topics are timeless. The book will be relevant for a long time.”
—Clay Miller“I highly recommend this book. As a former software company CEO and founder I have worked with many software engineers and had a number of VPs of engineering report to me. Luke was and is one of the best. He is not only a great engineer, but has a keen grasp of the strategic business issues that must drive good code and architectural decisions. I consider Beyond Software Architecture required reading for anyone building software systems.”
—Kevin RivetteExecutive Advisor, BCG Consulting
author of Rembrandts In The Attic
“Perhaps you’ve met, or worked with, or heard speak at events, or read the writings of someone who expects reverence because he commands academic knowledge of the latest software patterns, technologies, or development processes and tools. So what, you say. Suppose you take such knowledge for granted. Suppose that knowledge ...
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Prolog. Abdruck erfolgt mit freundlicher Genehmigung der Rechteinhaber. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.
Many excellent books have been written on software architecture. These books, which, among other things, define, classify, and describe software architectures, define notations for representing and communicating architectural choices, and provide guidance on making good architectural decisions, have enduring value. Unfortunately, while these books may help you build a successful architecture, they fall short of the goal of helping you create a winning solution. To create a winning solution, you need to move beyond subsystems and interfaces, beyond architectural patterns such as Front Controller or Pipes and Filters, and beyond creating third-normal-form relational databases. You need to move beyond software architecture and move toward understanding and embracing the business issues that must be resolved in order to create a winning solution.
An example of one such business issue concerns technical support. It is inevitable that some of your customers are going to have a problem with your software. The choices you've made long ago in such areas as log file design, how the system is integrated with other systems, how the system is configured, or how the system is upgraded will determine how well you can solve their problems. Beyond Software Architecture helps you move beyond software architecture and toward creating winning solutions by discussing a wide range of business issues and their interrelationship with architectural choices.
This book presents a unique perspective that is motivated and informed by my experiences in creating single-user programs costing less than $50; software systems used in academic research; utilities to diagnose and fix problems associated with internally developed systems; and distributed, enterprise-class platforms costing millions of dollars. Along the way, I've played a variety of roles. I've been an individual contributor, a direct manager, and a senior member of the corporate executive staff. At various times I've either worked in or led engineering, product marketing and management, quality assurance, technical publications, and first- and second-line support organizations. I've managed teams and projects across multiple cities and continents.
The common thread tying all of this software together is that it was created to provide value to some person. Research software, for example, serves the needs of the researchers who are trying to understand some phenomena. Enterprise application software, dealing with everything from customers to supply-chain management, is designed to serve the needs of a well-defined set of users and the businesses that license it in a sustainably profitable manner. Similar comments apply to every other kind of software, from games to personal contact managers, inventory management systems to graphic design tools.
The issues identified and discussed in this book affect every kind of software. Their presentation and discussion occur most often in the context of enterprise application software, where I have spent most of my professional career. While they have no universally accepted definition, enterprise applications typically meet one or more of the following characteristics:
- They are designed to support the needs of a business, at either a departmental or larger organizational unit.
- They are relatively expensive to build or license ($50,000-$5,000,000 and up).
- They have complex deployment and operational requirements.
- They can be operated independently, but the needs of the business are often best served when they are integrated with other enterprise applications.
Even if you're not creating an enterprise application, you will find this book useful. Creating sustainable software solutions--meeting customer needs over a long period of time through multiple releases--is a challenging, enjoyable, and rewarding endeavor, certainly not limited to the domain of enterprise applications!
Although I will often refer to software architecture and discuss technical matters, my discussions won't focus on such things as the best ways to diagram or document your architecture or the deeper design principles associated with creating robust, distributed Web-based component systems. As I said earlier, there are plenty of books that address these topics--in fact, almost too many, with the unfortunate side-effect that many people become so focused on technical details that they lose sight of the business value they're trying to provide.
Instead of concentrating on purely technical choices, Beyond Software Architecture helps you create and sustain truly winning solutions by focusing on the practical, nuts-and-bolts choices that must be made by the development team in a wide variety of areas. I have found that focusing on practical matters, such as how you should identify a release or integrate branding elements into your solution, reduces the often artificial barriers that can exist between developers and the business and marketing people with whom they work.
These barriers prevent both groups from creating winning solutions. I cringe when engineers take only a technology view without due consideration of business issues, or when marketing people make "get-me-this-feature" demands without due consideration of their underlying technical ramifications. When either side takes a position without due consideration of its impact, the likelihood of creating and sustaining a winning solution drops dramatically.
What is especially troubling is that these arguments seem to be made in support of the idea that technical issues can somehow be separated from business issues, or that business issues can somehow be separated from technical issues. At best this is simply wrong; at worst it can be a recipe for disaster. Developers are routinely asked to endure the hardships of design extremes, such as a low-memory footprint, in order to reduce total system cost. Entire companies are started to compete in existing markets because investors are convinced that one or more technological breakthroughs will provide the competitive advantage necessary for success. Not surprisingly, investors are even more eager to invest when the technological breakthrough is accompanied by a similar breakthrough in the business model being offered to customers.
Managing the interrelationship between technology and business will be a recurring theme throughout this book. Handle only the former and you might have an interesting technology or, perhaps, an elegant system,--but one that ultimately withers because no one is using it. Handle only the latter and you'll have a paper solution that excites lots of people and may even get you funding--but one that doesn't deliver any sustainable value. Handle both and you'll have a winning solution. While creating new technologies or elegant systems can be fun, and designing sophisticated new software applications or business models can be exciting, both pale in comparison to the deep satisfaction that comes from creating winning solutions and sustaining them.
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