Software Architecture in Practice, Third Edition

13. Architectural Tactics and Patterns

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.

—Thomas Edison

There are many ways to do design badly, and just a few ways to do it well. Because success in architectural design is complex and challenging, designers have been looking for ways to capture and reuse hard-won architectural knowledge. Architectural patterns and tactics are ways of capturing proven good design structures, so that they can be reused.

Architectural patterns have seen increased interest and attention, from both software practitioners and theorists, over the past 15 years or more. An architectural pattern

• is a package of design decisions that is found repeatedly in practice,

• has known properties that permit reuse, ...