Microsoft .NET: Architecting Applications for the Enterprise, Second Edition

Introduction

Good judgment comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgment.

—Fred Brooks

We find that the preceding quote contains the essence of software architecture and the gist of the architect’s role. Software architecture requires judgment because not all scenarios are the same. To exercise sound judgment, you need experience, and in this imperfect world, experience mostly comes from making some mistakes and bad choices—from bad judgment.

However, the world we live in often doesn’t give you the opportunity (or even the time) to form your own experience-based knowledge from which good judgment is developed. More often than not, all that executives want from architects is the right architecture right away.

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