Welcome to my new blog on .NET software architecture.
I set it up as a journal for my work on a book I plan on making architecting or modelling .NET software easier. For the past 2-3 years I developed a small system or method or view on how I think developers should approach planning and implementing the structure of a software. Sure, there are already many guidelines as to how one should design software - but still developers feel uneasy when standing in front of a blank flipchart. At least that´s what I experience again and again when consulting with clients.
How should they start with an architecture? How to map an architecture to tangible artifacts? How can they keep an architecture in sync with the code? These and many more questions make it difficult for them to feel comfortable with the task of architecting a software.
Unfortunately OOA/D, OOP, UML, DDD, architectural patterns like N-Tier Applications, or SOA don´t help much. Although they are all valuable, something is missing. Some glue, some big picture within which all this makes sense. That´s what I want to provide. A big picture of software and a clear roadmap for how to get from a bunch of requirements to deployable code.
I´ve blogged about my ideas before in my other English blog and in my German blog. But for a book I need to pull all this material together and add some new stuff. That´s what this blog is for. Plus, I want to give the whole story a provocative twist by claiming: software architecture needs to fit on the back of a napkin in order to stay understandable. As soon as architectural drawings can´t be sketched on a napkin anymore, they are too complex and will hamper discussion and implementation.
My credo thus is: As a .NET software architect strive for visualizing your ideas on the back of a napkin! Management as well as developers will love you for this.
If you like, stay tuned. I´d love to discuss my ideas with you.
Ralf Westphal, www.ralfw.de