Arctec Views

July 26, 2004

In this issue:

* Software Architecture is a means…

* Enterprise Architecture News

* Arctec Group News: Collaboration in a Secure Development

Process, Part 1, published in Information Security Bulletin

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Arctec Group has been in “high demand” on projects across the US (a contributing factor to recently less frequent Arctec Views). With this Arctec Views newsletter we aim to serve our clients, partners, and colleagues by providing our view on current issues and best practices in Enterprise Architecture as well as aggregating interesting news from the Enterprise Architecture landscape.

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Software Architecture Is A Means…

The rise of Software Architecture has been mostly positive, but not without inevitable side effects which need to be addressed for the craft to reach optimal effectiveness. In particular, the profession of Software Architects must realize that architecture is not the end deliverable of any project (even an architecture project). Architecture is an enabler of a successful platform, and as such must integrate well with the team, technologies and skills at hand whether the goal is evolutionary or revolutionary progression.

The Agile methodologies (http://www.agilemanifesto.org/) have taken some heat in some quarters of the enterprise architecture community as being less architecture-centric than, say, Rational Unified Process. While the point is debatable, the overall focus of Agile methodologies is that the number one priority of the project is working software. Regardless of selected methodology, this spirit should be at the root of every architectural effort, more so than adoption of an “uber” framework, technology, tool, or system.

Applications do not live on paper or whiteboards or Visio diagrams downloaded off of intranet sites. Applications live on clients and servers and they serve the business and user community. The Software Architecture deliverables should be the end result of an ongoing conversation and collaboration between the architecture, development, business community and other stakeholders. These same stakeholders, by the way, do not care about the latest and greatest architectural framework, only about how the architecture serves the users and the business. The goal and resulting value proposition for the architect is to guide development projects toward more cost-effective, better quality software, and not to push “architecture” for architecture’s sake.

In Cuban Jazz music, the drummers’ goal is to aim for a “light touch” providing rhythmic structure to influence the band’s direction without overpowering the other instruments. Similarly, the Software Architect’s biggest ongoing challenge is to find the right balance of maximizing positive influence while minimizing distractions from the software project’s main goal: cost-effective, quality software.

-Gunnar Peterson

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Enterprise Architecture News

Fascinating summary of discussion from the recent Always On conference on the Commoditization of Software

http://ross.typepad.com/blog/2004/07/commoditization.html

Political hot topic: expensing stock options, what will this legislation due to innovation?

http://news.com.com/Tech+workers+rally+against+expensing+options/2100-7342_3-5247177.html?tag=nl

Department of Homeland Security warns against using Internet Explorer

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=74&e=3&u=/cmp/20040702/tc_cmp/22103407

Counter-intuitive: Study shows lack of impact of online file sharing on music sales

http://www.guardian.co.uk/online/story/0,3605,1265840,00.html

Road Warrior Alert: which bag is best?

http://slate.msn.com/id/2101605/

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Have your say

Agree? Disagree? Insufficient data to judge? Email us at

views@arctecgroup.net, we want to hear from you.

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Arctec Group News

The latest print edition of Information Security Bulletin (http://www.chi-publishing.com) has a featured article “Collaboration in a Secure Development Process, Part 1”, by Arctec CTO Gunnar Peterson. This three part series examines a proactive approach for security, development, and business teams to partner in the development lifecycle to make intelligent choices about security tradeoffs, business risk, and features. Order through Information Security Bulletin or view the article at: www.arctecgroup.net/articles.htm

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Arctec Group: Strategic Technology Blueprints www.arctecgroup.net

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