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Discussion on: What's Your Favorite IT Quote or Rule? And How Does It Influence Your Work?

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FJones

Paraphrasing Johnson & Fowler: "Software architecture is a shared understanding of the things that are important."
This really encapsulates everything about my approach to software architecture:

  1. Make sure everyone understands how we want the software to be built.
  2. Focus on the important stuff. Focus on the things that are hard to change later, focus on exit strategies for when you do need to change them.
  3. Don't get lost in details. Strict adherence to patterns doesn't solve problems. Patterns are guidelines. Formalizing every piece of the architecture makes you lose sight of the bigger picture - the important stuff.