A university class on coding theory taught us about spheres in an n-dimensional space. Though the math behind it made a good bit of sense
(the spheres represent the “error radius” for encoding, while the space
between the sphere is “waste” in the coding scheme), trying to
visualize four-dimensional spheres can make your head hurt a good bit.
However, thinking in more dimensions can be the key to transforming the
way you think about your IT and your business.
Living Along a Line
IT architecture is a profession of trade-offs: flexibility brings
complexity; decoupling increases latency; distributing components
introduces communication overhead. The architect’s role is often to
determine the “best” spot on such a continuum, based on experience and
an understanding of the system context and requirements. A system’s
architecture is essentially defined by the combination of trade-offs
made across multiple continua.
Quality Versus Speed
When looking at development methods, one well-known trade-off is between quality and speed: if you have more time, you can achieve better quality because you have time to build things properly and to test more extensively to eliminate remaining defects. If you count how many times you have heard the argument “We would like to have a better ...
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