Initially you’d have to question reviewing this book as an EA book at all; although some enterprise architects need to be reminded that ultimately EA is about software. This book is really aimed at software developers who want to market a product, in the authors own words, “single-user programs costing less than $50″. I’ve not read much in this space so I’m not that good a judge, but its seems a competent work to me.
Hohmann’s developers are not the typical corporate IT department software developers encountered in architecture books. But, here’s the EA angle, there are lessons to be learned from this market driven software development viewpoint.
Hohmann’s search for a winning solution constantly connects his software development strategy to business imperatives and it is this search for a greater context that makes this book worth a look. His thoughts on the forces that shape software architecture, “marketecture”, market maturity, usability, training, education, user communities, product releases, upgrading and patch management are as valid for an internal corporate audience as they are for the open market.
Not surprisingly the book spends some effort on the commercial issues of COTS software like licensing and business models which might help you understand your vendors better, but won’t be of much use to the average corporate architect.
This book is for small scale software developers who want to produce software that resonates with their target market. This is not an EA book, but having said that I’m of the firm belief that no one has a mortage on good ideas and that a good architect reads eclectically. So if you are involved with developing software either within your organization or for the general market then borrow a friends copy for the weekend.
Hohmann, Luke (2004) Beyond Software Architecture, Signature Series, Addison-Wesley, Boston
ISBN 0-20-177594-8