The book starts with a tight lightweight, but perhaps a little pessimistic introduction to the current EA landscape. But there is no arguing with its key point. That it is managing the complexity caused by moving from an abstract design to the implementation of a physical system that is the major challenge.
As its title suggests this is a very pragmatic work. The first chapter draws together some of the business issues that will influence an architectural design. Here Sessions does a better than average job at summarizing the big business issues that should shape your EA. All too often this sort of detail is overlooked by theoretically orientated works. However, this is also the kind of content that can date a book really quickly, but that’s the price you pay for being specific. The author covers off the Zachman framework, TOGAF and FEA in less than 20 pages and there aren’t that many words on a page in this book.
The book then gets stuck into what I think is its most useful contribution. Complexity, with about 50 pages of pretty good layman’s (as in designed for) explanation of complexity backed up with some math, history and psychology all delivered in a light easy read style. I’d recommend these two chapters to any architect its the things we need to be reminded of from time to time, delivered painlessly.
The second part of the book is literally the quest for simplification. We get about 80 pages out of a total @180 that cover techniques as the author lays out a divide and conqueror strategy based on Autonomous Business Capabilities (ABCs), Enterprise Partitions, a set of patterns and a methodology called SIP (Simple Iterative Partitions). Supported by a typical fictional case study.
Chapter 7 introduces the Software Fortress, which looks to me pretty much like re badged modularity on ACID. I’m not sure why it’s here. I also noticed how SOA (Whatever that is? Fair point) got such short shrift? (Because its IBM?) I was left a little puzzled. But, by then I’d had my monies worth and was happy and it hadn’t been a hard read. I have no doubt that this approach will work, but I am left wondering how well it would work at the big end of town, in the very complex enterprises.
This is not a book to start your collection with and it’s not for managers. It is however, fortresses aside, worth a spot on your bookshelf. From where you should take it down every six months and read chapters 2 and 3 out a loud.
Sessions, Rodger (2008), Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises, Microsoft Press, Redmond
ISBN 13 978-0-7356-2578-5
[...] Simple Architectures for Complex Enterprises | Angry Architect [...]