http://neverletdown.net/2010/07/improvisational-architecture/ by Michael Keeling Mon, 23 Apr 2012 19:09:07 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 http://neverletdown.net/2010/07/improvisational-architecture/#comment-448 Michael Keeling Fri, 16 Jul 2010 20:42:23 +0000 http://neverletdown.net/?p=370#comment-448 I guess it all depends on what you need from the system. If flexibility and functionality are the most important things, and the system is relatively low cost or the design "well understood" (e.g. a web application or a framework makes the design decisions) then I think you can get away with emergent design easily. Could you improvise/emerge any system? Probably not, but even with the systems that are a good fit for emergent design, you're not going to stand much of a chance without a solid background in architecture. I guess it all depends on what you need from the system. If flexibility and functionality are the most important things, and the system is relatively low cost or the design “well understood” (e.g. a web application or a framework makes the design decisions) then I think you can get away with emergent design easily. Could you improvise/emerge any system? Probably not, but even with the systems that are a good fit for emergent design, you’re not going to stand much of a chance without a solid background in architecture.

]]> http://neverletdown.net/2010/07/improvisational-architecture/#comment-446 Raul Vejar Fri, 16 Jul 2010 13:20:08 +0000 http://neverletdown.net/?p=370#comment-446 It is a nice post, although I don't think I agree with everything in there. To me architecture has always been the part that needs to think and plan ahead, improvising is almost an exact opposite in my mind. It almost feels an egoistic approach to architecture, relying on snap decisions and instinct more than context and careful analysis. Although this can be somewhat compensated with experience and training, unless you are building the same system over and over again it can not be replaced. I definitely agree the seven key characteristics you quote and the overall philosophy have an agile flavor to them, but agile teams are not well known for producing well architectured systems. They usually are systems with flexible architectures, but that is not always a good thing when it prevents you from achieving the reliability and maintainability that you require. It is a nice post, although I don’t think I agree with everything in there. To me architecture has always been the part that needs to think and plan ahead, improvising is almost an exact opposite in my mind.
It almost feels an egoistic approach to architecture, relying on snap decisions and instinct more than context and careful analysis. Although this can be somewhat compensated with experience and training, unless you are building the same system over and over again it can not be replaced.
I definitely agree the seven key characteristics you quote and the overall philosophy have an agile flavor to them, but agile teams are not well known for producing well architectured systems. They usually are systems with flexible architectures, but that is not always a good thing when it prevents you from achieving the reliability and maintainability that you require.

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