What this Site is about
This is a personal site about software architecture and being a software architect. For right now it is mostly a place to stash tools that I have picked up here and there over the years. It is also a place I can play with Web stuff. Its just getting started, so there are lots of dead ends and missing pieces.
You are more than welcome to take a look around. If you see someting you like, feel free to use it. It is all without warranty, etc. of course. But if you find something that might be useful, go for it. If you have questions, suggestions for making something better, or just like to talk about this kind of stuff, go ahead and email me.
What's Where
The big topics are along the top menu row:
- Architecture - Starts with this introduction. Then:
- Roles & Responsibilities defines what it means to be a software architect, and how the software architect's role works with the other project leadership roles to make a project successful (or at least suck less.) Its a good place to look to decide if you're likely to be interested in other stuff here.
- Requirements is a starter list of architecture requirements. It is hard to explain to users what you are asking for when you ask for their architecture requirements. This list can help jump-start the conversation.
- Domains are the places where an architect needs to make sure that appropriate decisions get made.
- Relationship Matrix is an Excel worksheet of a QFD Relationship Matrix. When the architecture requirements are (becoming) known and there are alternatives to choose among in a domain this tool can help narrow the choices.
- Technical is where the good technical bits will go -- things like mapping objects to/from relational database, managing distributed state in a multi-tiered system, etc.
- Project Management covers topics where the architect and the project manager cooperate.
- Business Analysis has topics both about tasks that architects and business analysts do together, and some QA things (because QA goes in the Business Analysis bucket for me.)
- Enterprise scales architecture up from the software project to the enterprise.
- Other is a grab bag
- References is an annotated list of things available here, on the Web or elsewhere that might be of interest.