Software Architect's Handbook

Avoiding the law of the instrument

When considering what to focus on in your learning, it's not just about maintaining your current skill set but also about learning new things. Keeping up with current trends is an integral part of continuous learning.

Continuous learning is important for any software development professional, but this may be particularly true for software architects. If you are not aware of rising new technologies and software development approaches that you can leverage in your solutions, then when you are confronted with a design problem, you may only be able to recommend a technology that you have already been using. This idea is known as the law of the instrument, which is sometimes referred to as the law of the hammer ...