The Burning Need for Architecture

Designing an enterprise system is difficult. It requires a great deal of knowledge and skill. In other industries, much of the knowledge required by professionals is taught before they enter work. Such industries can be said to be "institutionally knowledgeable." This knowledge is often separated into specific areas of concern. In the building industry, architects learn that factory design is quite different from apartment design, which again is different from church design and office block design. Again, engineers understand that designing disk drives is quite different from designing airplanes (although both involve aerodynamics). Vehicle designers understand that 18-wheeler design is different from designing a family automobile. Each area has its own architecture, and design of specific products conforms to that architecture.

Within an industry, each area of concern is characterized by what can be called its "architectural approach." (Richard Hubert calls this "architectural style." See Convergent Architecture, Wiley, 2002). Projects whose products have the same architectural approach have a great deal in common, while those involving products with differing architectural approaches will have much less in common. This is so even though the techniques and tools used in projects may be similar. Design of a specific product is informed, constrained, and defined by the architectural approach within which that design happens. Techniques that are common across areas (and sometimes across industries) are important, but more important are the different applications of those techniques to each architectural approach.

The knowledge needed to produce something varies according to the architectural approach required by the customer, and customers will often specify the architectural approach: Thus, you'll hear "I want a family automobile" and seldom if ever "I want a vehicle."

Our industry is burdened by technique, and it is light on architectural approach. Yet it is obvious that a stand-alone GUI application is quite different from an enterprise system, and both are quite different from a factory automation control system. Each represents a different architectural approach, and for projects within each architectural approach, a great deal of knowledge is commonly applicable. Still, many IT projects begin with the professionals having a tool kit full of techniques, without the knowledge required for the given architectural approach. Some of this knowledge has to be learned painfully within the context of the project. Inevitably, many projects fail to deliver the required knowledge, as project architects are required to learn by themselves.

We need to capture that knowledge and make it available within our industry. This book is an important contributor to fulfilling this need.