Product Description

"97 Things" represents a new kind of technical book. It's not about code; it's not about UML diagrams; and, it's about what really matters: the principles that the best software architects have pulled out of their experience. Benefit from their experience; find out what's really important. It's not always technology - in fact, it usually isn't. Communications with stakeholders, understanding requirements, eliminating complexity before it gets you tied up in knots - all of these trump technology issues. Many projects fail, but projects rarely fail because the developers chose to write in Python or Ruby or Java or C. Get into the mind of today's leading software architects! Find out what they think about when they're approaching a project. If you want to take your career in software development to the next level, this book is essential reading.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #30159 in Books
• Published on: 2009-02-13
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 220 pages

About the Author
Richard Monson-Haefel , an independent software developer, coauthored all five editions of Enterprise JavaBeans and Java Message Service (all O'Reilly). He's a software architect specializing in multi-touch interfaces and a leading expert on enterprise computing. More detail on his work and writings can be found at www.monson-haefel.com.

Customer Reviews

I like it
97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know is a book about things which are obvious and every software architect should know, remember and employ. The problem is that most things you can find inside the book are easily forgotten, underestimated and usually not implemented during day-to-day work.

The book consists of 97 short essays. Each of them deals with a vital problem software architects often have to face. Although there are great number of brilliant stories in the book I especially like the one titled: You're Negotiating More Often Than You Think, which is about a project sponsor wanting to cut down expenses. Does it sound familiar to you? Do you know what to do when it happens? The book is a collective work which makes it even more valuable.

Every day in the morning I start my work reading 1-3 essays to keep good practices in my memory and not forget management pitfalls lying in wait for me round the corner. I believe it helps me to become a better software architect. This book is a great and rare opportunity to learn from real experts in the field.

A bunch of good blog entries or small essays
This book is a good collection of small blog entries or essays if you will. Nearly all of these are good reminders of what is essentially good thinking or practice for a software architect. They range from down to earth technical advices to overall process and collaboration and roles, to the philosophical guiding points of software architecture. Some of them may even seem or are self contradicting, but this only highlights the importance of taking context into account when you make decisions based on some of the condensed principles or learned knowledge of this book.

I find it particular interesting to be able to go back to a topic or subject in one of the essays and find the arguments for some considerations that's suddenly imperative for a decision you need to make now or communicate to somebody. The book is perfect for looking up or revisiting a subject when you need it. The titles of the essays are in most cases small soundbites or reminders of the subject in themselves, making it possible to quickly refresh a point made somewhere in a certain context.

I am a system/software developer, and some of the essays are a bit too philosophical to my taste, but fortunately those essays are in the extreme minority. I have enough experience to recognize a genuine experience or knowledge born out of practical expediency when I see it, and most of the essays in this book are of this kind.

Sure, I could just maintain a bunch of links to the relevant websites that substantiates the same essays, but having them collected in a book, easily accessible, is suitable for this kind of knowledge: These essays are nearly timeless in their advices and suggestions.

It's easy to go read a handful of the essays in 15 minutes or there about. I think some other reviewer suggested to do as he did, namely read a couple of essays every morning as quick reminder, because almost all these essays are truisms of the kind that you usually forget although you do know them.

I especially like the essays "Seek the Value in Requested Capabilities" by Einar Landre, "Everything will ultimately fail" by Michael Nygaard, "One Line of Working Code Is Worth 500 of Specification" by Allison Randal, "There Can Be More Than One" by Keith Braithwaite, "Simplicity Before Generality, Use Before Reuse" by Kevlin Henney, "Get the 1,000-Foot View" by Erikk Doernenburg, "It Is All About The Data" by Paul W. Homer, and many others. It's not really fair not to mention any more essays, but this review is getting long enough.

I give it 4 stars of 5, because the book is really good for software architects, technical project managers, software developers, etc. or people who aspire to be one of those, or maybe just a better one. It's not up there with the nearly immortal classics or epitomes that lives on for years, even decades, so 5 stars is out of the question as far as I am concerned. I especially liked that the book was kept short (less than 200 pages) and still managed to get alot of knowledge through, a hallmark of any good book. Maybe it really deserves 5 stars of 5, but let's wait 10 years and see.

It's amazing what passes for wisdom sometimes
I'd give it a miss if I were you. I've read about 10 of the 97 things so far, and it's all either stating the bleedin' obvious or trotting out some typical business-speak waffle that doesn't actually mean anything. This is the sort of book that's neither enternaining nor useful. If you're looking for a good read, try 'The Player of Games' by Iain M Banks instead, which is brilliant and fascinating modern scifi!