15.8 Final Words

I hope you have been convinced to try some of the ideas in the software fortress model. In fact, I hope you have already been trying some of these ideas. As I have said, one of the appealing aspects of this model is that many people feel it is just a formalization of what they have already been doing. This is great news.

There is a lot of room for further work on this model. Regardless of your talents, you are needed. Here are some ways in which you might be able to contribute:

• Contributing case studies of projects built from the ground up with this model

• Writing articles and books on software fortress patterns

• Developing tools to automate software fortress design

• Championing the software fortress model in your organization

Few of us ever have the opportunity to directly influence the future of an important methodology. It is my hope, more than anything else, that this book will enable as many people as possible to help define the future of the software fortress model. This model has the potential to move us as far beyond three-tier/N-tier architectures as three-tier/N- tier architectures moved us beyond client “server systems.

A participant in a recent workshop I gave on software fortresses expressed the idea well. He said it is very exciting to be in on the ground floor of such a promising new modeling approach ”late enough to see clearly the enormous potential, but still early enough to be able to influence how the technology evolves.

I hope you will join me in defining this evolution.