97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts [Paperback]

Richard Monson-Haefel (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 059652269X | ISBN-13: 978-0596522698 | Publication Date: February 12, 2009 | Edition: 1

In this truly unique technical book, today's leading software architects present valuable principles on key development issues that go way beyond technology. More than four dozen architects -- including Neal Ford, Michael Nygard, and Bill de hOra -- offer advice for communicating with stakeholders, eliminating complexity, empowering developers, and many more practical lessons they've learned from years of experience. Among the 97 principles in this book, you'll find useful advice such as:

• Don't Put Your Resume Ahead of the Requirements (Nitin Borwankar)
• Chances Are, Your Biggest Problem Isn't Technical (Mark Ramm)
• Communication Is King; Clarity and Leadership, Its Humble Servants (Mark Richards)
• Simplicity Before Generality, Use Before Reuse (Kevlin Henney)
• For the End User, the Interface Is the System (Vinayak Hegde)
• It's Never Too Early to Think About Performance (Rebecca Parsons)

To be successful as a software architect, you need to master both business and technology. This book tells you what top software architects think is important and how they approach a project. If you want to enhance your career, 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know is essential reading.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Richard Monson-Haefel , an independent software developer, coauthored all five editions of Enterprise JavaBeans and Java Message Service (all O'Reilly). He's a software architect specializing in multi-touch interfaces and a leading expert on enterprise computing. More detail on his work and writings can be found at www.monson-haefel.com.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1 edition (February 12, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 059652269X
• ISBN-13: 978-0596522698
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #322,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

89 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars I want my money back, July 21, 2009

By 

Rao Venugopal "Venu" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts (Paperback)

Heavy on keywords and low on actual content / value.

Imagine your Dad rings you up and says, "Be sure to go to work bright and early..." or "The early bird gets the worm" and proceeds to ramble on for 5 minutes about why that is important. We have all been through this kind of lecture. For politeness sake, you bite your tongue and zone out.

Now replace Dad with Bill Gates/ Steve Jobs/ some famous architect. However the advice being doled out is similar. eg. "Be sure to have a decent UI for every component/ blah blah blah".
How would you feel if you had to read 97 articles by famous architects / tech gurus, each 2 pages long and the entire content of the article is in the first introductory line itself. The rest is fluff.
I don't know about you, but when I am paying 20+ dollars for a book, I expect more than simple fluff.

-V

62 of 64 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Not worth the money, August 5, 2009

By 

Charles D. Sewell "Charles Sewell" (Houston, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts (Paperback)

This book is just an accumulation random advice collected for "free" off a blog. You will feel like you have read a bunch of fotune cookies (i.e. "The longest trip begins with a single step") on the topic of architecture. Not a single topic is explored in depth since each topic is only 2 pages in length.

I would not recommend this book.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Lack of Detail, July 5, 2009

By 

C. Roeder (Denver, CO USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts (Paperback)

I found many of the contributions interesting, but wished for more detail. Many are not much longer than a page and left me wanting.