Essential Software Architecture

by Ian Gorton

Book Overview

Understanding Software Architecture.- Introducing the Case Study.- Software Quality Attributes.- An Introduction to Middleware Architectures and Technologies.- Service-Oriented Architectures and... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 3540287132
• ISBN13: 9783540287131
• Release Date: April 2006
• Publisher: Springer
• Length: 283 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.5"

Customer Reviews

Good solid book on software architecture

This book was the textbook for a introduction course to software architecture. I found the textbook quite helpful in learning architectural principles. The core chapters of the book are the first 6 chapters, which provided a strong foundation of knowledge. Chapter 1 introduces the topic by discussing architecture definition, abstraction, views and non-functional requirements plus others. Chapter 2 introduces the study study utilized throughout the book. I got alot out of chapters 3 & 4. Chapter 3 discusses software quality attributes that an architecture should take into consideration. Quality attribute are characteristics of an architecture design rather than capability. Quality attributes are such items as scalability, modifiability, security, performance, portability, etc. Chapter 4 discusses architecture design patterns and technologies applicable to architecture design. Chapter 5 discusses development cycle for defining your software architecture. Chapter 6 discusses how to document the architecture design. I thought chapter 6 was a bit light in discussing architecture documentation. In the course where this book was the textbook, there was much time spent discussing views and viewpoints. I think chapter 6 should have delved deeper into the view discussion. I thought the author did an excellent job with this book. There are many different types of software architectures that can be built. Therefore, readers would becoming various technological perspectives in reading this book. I felt he discussed the topics in the chapters in a way that was applicable to this wide audience.

Complex and Useful

I found the subject matter of the book to be complex in a conceptual manner. Designing large systems is not simple because of the interaction between all of the subsystems that inter-relate to make the system work. I think the information is well worth the read because all good knowledge comes from cognitive work. I personally found that the best way to read this book was to relate that topics that were being discussed with a project that I was working on while using the example case as an added source of cognition. I feel that this is an incredibly useful resource for those who have to design systems from the "ground up". It has several best practices and examples of where things can go wrong. I feel this is well worth a read.

See UML 2 applied to architecture specification

Get this book if you're interested in seeing UML 2 applied to software architecture specification. In any case, it gives a good overview of architecting with emerging technologies as well as state-of-the-industry middleware.

Practical and timely

My Master's project deals with Software Architecture best practices and I turned to this book to help formulate my thoughts. The chapter on Middleware architectures is a valuable read and serves as a unifying framework for thinking about middleware in the architectural sense. The case study used in the book is helpful as well. Overall, you will find this book an excellent introduction to Software Architecture (with a nice dive into middleware and other topics not readily found in other SA books) and a nice read to go along with the other Software Architecture classics from the SEI.

book review -- essential software engineering

This book attempts to bridge the gap between the needs of professional software architects and the current body of knowledge in software architecture. It aims to convey the essence of architecture thinking, practices and supporting technologies and provides concise discussions about the issues, techniques and methods in architectural practices. It also describes and analyzes the general purpose component and middleware technologies that support many of the fundamental architectural patterns used in applications. As an introductory textbook it is very useful for (to be) ICT professionals and students.