[.ca] Applied Software Architecture (ISBN 0201325713)

This book is excellent!:
I am Software Architect at Siemens Medical Systems, Angiography Division in Chicago.I am involved with the architecture for a Angio Acquisition/Post processing system. I have read the book "Applied Software Architecture". It is excellent! I find it very helpful and use it as a reference for my architecture work.

Much Form, Little Substance:
This book spends a great deal of time discussing what it suggests one does to architect a system. However, there is very little on how to actually do it. The steps to do things are detailed, but what doing the steps means is not well articulated. Further, some parts of the process are very poorly explained, but still used as a foundation of many other parts of the process. The best practices are simply case studies that really impart no wisdom to the reader (or, at least, to this reader). I tried to "get something" out of this book several times, and read it fully twice. However, I'm convinced that there really isn't much there.

Good in essence, lower in form:
This book try to tackle a very hard, even if not old problem : How to model the architecture and what approach can be adopted ? The high value here is : they do it ! I think the approach adopted here is at least a very good starting point and the multiple view approach looks like Kruchten's idea. Another good thing is the improvements proposed to UML for architechture. My highest regret is about examples proposed here : They are too complex and the ideas behind the approach is hidden behind the exemple themselves which are hard to understand. Moreover, we have four example, all seems to be real time example. I would like to have several domain here, like B2B architechture and classic IS architecture. Finally, it's a pitty to gives only 3 stars for a book where I feel 5 stars possible...

Architects of the Architecture process:
OK. So you are a seasoned software engineer, 4th and 5th generation languages hold no secrets for you, design patterns are your credo, and you even have tackled this good old OMT technique. However, you still feel uneasy when it comes to translating use cases to risk management, and especially to take into account those interns who will develop part of the software. This book answers your questions by proposing both a technique and a language (UML extended), that will help you list the different factors affecting your project, infer the right design decisions, and document them throughout the project. For those with an analytical mind, the architecture process itself is decomposed and re-engineered. No consultant talk here : everything is explained, both in words and figures, using real world examples. Some will regret that the application field used for the demonstration is too narrow, since only real time applications are used, and there is no reference to database architecture or e-business ! But for those of the embedded world, such a book was awaited, and browsing (too) quickly through various application fields would have contented no one, anyhow. It is still a long reading, if you want to study all examples in depth - fortunately, you can start your own design after the first case study. Lastly, using UML throughout the project eases the communication with the development engineers, and it really helps when your team tackles detailed design.

A novel and thorough approach to software architecture:
Computer scientists at Siemens have developed an intriguing and very useful approach for describing the architecture of software systems. This book, written at a high level of quality, details a wide variety of factors that project managers and architects must consider during the course of planning, designing, and implementing small-, medium-, and large-scale projects. Backed by data from real-world examples, the authors present their ideas in a very understandable form and give software engineers many good ideas for improving the quality of their products.