97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

• Don't put your resume ahead of the requirements
• Simplify essential complexity; diminish accidental complexity
• Chances are your biggest problem isn't technical
• Communication is King; Clarity and Leadership its humble servants
• Architecting is about balancing
• Seek the value in requested capabilities
• Stand Up!
• Skyscrapers aren't scalable
• You're negotiating more often than you think.
• Quantify
• One line of working code is worth 50
• There is no one-size-fits-all solution
• It's never too early to think about performance
• Application architecture determines application performance
• Commit-and-run is a crime.
• There Can be More than One
• Business Drives
• Simplicity before generality, use before reuse
• Architects must be hands on
• Continuously Integrate
• Avoid Scheduling Failures
• Architectural Tradeoffs
• Database as a Fortress
• Use uncertainty as a driver
• Scope is the enemy of success
• Reuse is about people and education, not just architecture
• There is no 'I' in architecture
• Get the 1000ft view
• Try before choosing
• Understand The Business Domain
• Programming is an act of design
• Time changes everything
• Give developers autonomy
• Value stewardship over showmanship
• Warning, problems in mirror may be larger than they appear
• The title of software architect has only lower-case 'a's; deal with it
• Software architecture has ethical consequences
• Everything will ultimately fail
• Context is King
• It's all about performance
• Engineer in the white spaces
• Talk the Talk
• Heterogeneity Wins
• Dwarves, Elves, Wizards, and Kings
• Learn from Architects of Buildings
• Fight repetition
• Welcome to the Real World
• Don't Control, but Observe
• Janus the Architect
• Architects focus is on the boundaries and interfaces
• Challenge assumptions - especially your own
• Record your rationale
• Empower developers
• It is all about the data
• Control the data, not just the code
• Don't Stretch The Architecture Metaphors
• Focus on Application Support and Maintenance
• Prepare to pick two
• Prefer principles, axioms and analogies to opinion and taste
• Start with a Walking Skeleton
• Share your knowledge and experiences
• Make sure the simple stuff is simple
• If you design it, you should be able to code it.
• The ROI variable
• Your system is legacy, design for it.
• If there is only one solution, get a second opinion
• Understand the impact of change
• You have to understand Hardware too
• Shortcuts now are paid back with interest later
• "Perfect" is the Enemy of "Good Enough"
• Avoid "Good Ideas"
• Great content creates great systems
• The Business Vs. The Angry Architect
• Stretch key dimensions to see what breaks
• Before anything, an architect is a developer
• A rose by any other name will end up as a cabbage
• Stable problems get high quality solutions
• It Takes Diligence
• Take responsibility for your decisions
• Don't Be a Problem Solver
• Choose your weapons carefully, relinquish them reluctantly
• Your Customer is Not Your Customer
• It will never look like that
• Choose Frameworks that play well with others
• Make a strong business case
• Pattern Pathology
• Learn a new language
• Don't Be Clever
• Build Systems to be Zuhanden
• Find and retain passionate problem solvers
• Software doesn't really exist
• Pay down your technical debt
• You can't future-proof solutions
• The User Acceptance Problem
• The Importance of Consommé
• For the end-user, the interface is the system
• Great software is not built, it is grown