My two-cents about architecture style

Recently, the topic of architecture style has gotten more discussion.  A colleague, Ruth Malan, noted that the Microsoft Application Architecture guide has devoted a chapter to the topic.  Ruth contrasted their definition with the one she published in her blog in July 2008.  In addition, architecture giants, such as David Garlan, Mary Shaw, and Roy Fielding have each weighed in with their own definitions.

So why does this matter?  Why should a practicing architect care who specifies which definitions and whether or not they are consistent.  Does anybody’s work day really depend on a definition?

Personally, I think it can.  But I don’t really think it’s about the definitions anyway.  I think it’s about identifying, clarifying, understanding, and discussing the concepts that underlie the definitions.

At the end of the day, I think that a clear picture of what architecture styles are, and how they relate to architecture formulation, is extremely important for all practicing architects.  If you are skeptical, take a few minutes to read my article at http://charliealfred.wordpress.com/architecture-stylin/ and leave a comment to let me know if you agree or disagree.

Revised: Requirements vs. Architecture

Thanks to some spot-on comments by a colleague, Ruth Malan of Bredemeyer Software, I have made some revisions to the Requirements vs. Architecture page (http://charliealfred.wordpress.com/requirements-vs-architecture/), added last week.  The content of the article has remained pretty much the same as it was, but the the organization has been changed a bit.  The previous article had three themes:

• how should requirements and architecture relate
• what happens if you try to specify requirements without architecture
• what you might try to do if you find yourself in an organization that doesn’t value the role of architecture in requirements

The original article didn’t juggle these themes as well as it could, and didn’t tie them together into a single coherent conclusion.  My hope is that the few small changes new organization makes improvments in this area.