Past Book Review (August 16, 2008): "Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises"

Past book review (i.e. posted prior to starting this blog) for Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises, by Roger Sessions, Microsoft Press, 2008:

Effective architecture books are difficult to find. The subject is not trivial. And disagreements are prevalent in this space, even on the definition of architecture itself. It seems that more texts on architecture are being written than in the past, but most of the emphasis seems to be on design. While design is important, architectural decisions have far reaching effects on software systems (such as maintainability and scalability) if and when they are ever actually successfully constructed and deployed. Of course, most technology professionals rightly recognize that there exist different types of architecture. Roger Sessions defines enterprise architecture as "a description of the goals of an organization, how these goals are realized by business processes, and how these business processes can be better served through technology". Sessions later offers a simplified definition that it is "the art of maximizing the value of IT investments", and reducing complexity in the enterprise helps achieve these investment returns.