The Software Architect Elevator

Chapter 25. Software Is Collaboration

Got Git?

Hello Peter, what’s happening?

Much has (rightly) been said and written about the differences between IT architecture and classic building architecture, which we often refer to in our metaphors. For example, although buildings do evolve over time (just very slowly¹), achieving high rates of change at low cost is something that brick-and-mortar objects can’t do. But many things can, and it’s not at all limited to software development.

Who Says Software Is for Computers Only?

Enterprises spend significant effort creating, revising, and sharing documents, be they strategic plans, schedules, design documents, or status reports (Chapter 30). Typically, these documents need input from multiple parties and undergo iterations and quality checks until they are released. Such artifacts are really a form of software—they surely aren’t hardware, even though they may be printed on physical paper on occasion (witnessing someone print 25 copies of a large slide deck on digital transformation will forever be burned into my mind).

So, if documents are in fact software, if we want to optimize and accelerate our collaboration and communication, we might be able to learn a bit by looking at how software delivery teams, especially widely distributed open source teams, work.

Version Control

The one tool you won’t be able to pry out of any developer’s ...