Design It!: From Programmer to Software Architect

Don’t engineer by coincidence-design it like you mean it! Filled with practical techniques, Design It! is the perfect introduction to software architecture for programmers who are ready to grow their design skills. Lead your team as a software architect, ask the right stakeholders the right questions, explore design options, and help your team implement a system that promotes the right -ilities. Share your design decisions, facilitate collaborative design workshops that are fast, effective, and fun-and develop more awesome software!

With dozens of design methods, examples, and practical know-how, Design It! shows you how to become a software architect. Walk through the core concepts every architect must know, discover how to apply them, and learn a variety of skills that will make you a better programmer, leader, and designer.

Uncover the big ideas behind software architecture and gain confidence working on projects big and small. Plan, design, implement, and evaluate software architectures and collaborate with your team, stakeholders, and other architects. Identify the right stakeholders and understand their needs, dig for architecturally significant requirements, write amazing quality attribute scenarios, and make confident decisions. Choose technologies based on their architectural impact, facilitate architecture-centric design workshops, and evaluate architectures using lightweight, effective methods. Write lean architecture descriptions people love to read. Run an architecture design studio, implement the architecture you’ve designed, and grow your team’s architectural knowledge. Good design requires good communication. Talk about your software architecture with stakeholders using whiteboards, documents, and code, and apply architecture-focused design methods in your day-to-day practice.

Hands-on exercises, real-world scenarios, and practical team-based decision-making tools will get everyone on board and give you the experience you need to become a confident software architect.

Table of Contents

Part I—Introducing Software Architecture
Chapter 1. Become A Software Architect
Chapter 2. Design Thinking Fundamentals

Part II—Architecture Design Fundamentals
Chapter 3. Devise A Design Strategy
Chapter 4. Empathize With Stakeholders
Chapter 5. Dig For Architecturally Significant Requirements
Chapter 6. Choose An Architecture (Before It Chooses You)
Chapter 7. Create A Foundation With Patterns
Chapter 8. Manage Complexity With Meaningful Models
Chapter 9. Host An Architecture Design Studio
Chapter 10. Visualize Design Decisions
Chapter 11. Describe The Architecture
Chapter 12. Give The Architecture A Report Card
Chapter 13. Empower The Architects On Your Team

Part III—The Architect’s Toolbox
Chapter 14. Activities To Understand The Problem
Chapter 15. Activities To Explore Potential Solutions
Chapter 16. Activities To Make The Design Tangible
Chapter 17. Activities To Evaluate Design Options