How do architectures fail? One way is that we make arbitrary and untested assumptions about constraints – so how do we avoid that trap? My recent webinar ‘How architecture fails, and what to do about it‘ (see slidedeck on Slideshare, and full …

How architectures fail – 3: Constraints Read more »

How do architectures fail? One way is that we start architecture too late or finish too early on the realisation-stack – so how do we avoid that trap? My recent webinar ‘How architecture fails, and what to do about it‘ …

How architectures fail – 2: Scope of action Read more »

How do architectures fail? One way is that key distinctions between architecture and design can get blurred – so how do we avoid that trap? My recent webinar ‘How architecture fails, and what to do about it‘ (see slidedeck on …

How architectures fail – 1: Architecture vs design Read more »

What the heck is ‘enterprise-architecture’? Why are there are so many arguments on this, so many conflicting opinions? Perhaps a key clue is in the fact that there is so much argument about this? And that maybe the best way to …

What is enterprise? What is architecture? Read more »

What is architecture? What do we do in architecture? And how do we do it? Turns out that it’s essentially the same for every kind of architecture: enterprise-architecture, solutions-architecture, software-architecture, building-architecture, naval-architecture, brand-architecture, whatever. Right down at the root, in principle, architecture is incredibly simple. It all …

Architecture is simple Read more »

What does architecture actually do? What makes it different from anything else that people do? (There’s no particular start-point to this one: it’s probably a mixture of several of those interminable LinkedIn conversations, but likely a bunch of other stuff as …

Architecture, structure and story Read more »

Was showing a colleague one of my favourite small books yesterday: Matthew Frederick’s 101 Things I Learned In Architecture School. Briefly flicking through the two-page spreads, one caught my eye. Seems so apposite to enterprise-architecture and the like that it’s …

Two points of view on (enterprise) architecture Read more »

Software-architect extraordinaire Simon Brown kindly pointed me to the InfoQ article ‘Agile and Architecture Conflict‘, which summarised the views of various folks on the ‘agile vs architecture’ debate, including myself, Simon and another of my regular co-creators (co-conspirators? 🙂 ), …

Architecting the enterprise backbone Read more »

Several people, including Nigel Green, Doug Newdick and Kris Meukens, picked up on my comments about architecture versus design in my earlier post ‘Great conversations on enterprise-architecture‘. Nigel kindly wrote a follow-up post on his Posterous blog, and Kris pointed to an …

Notes on architecture versus design Read more »

Just been reading (via Tweet by Bill Ives) a post by Anne Marie McEwan on ‘Loosening the Taylorist Stranglehold on the Workplace‘. Within a much larger context in a very good article, this one brief section caught my attention: The …

‘Ba’, Cynefin, place and architecture Read more »