The Art of Systems Architecting

by Mark W. Maier

If engineering is the art and science of technical problem solving, systems architecting happens when you don’t yet know what the problem is. The third edition of a highly respected bestseller, The Art of Systems Architecting provides in-depth coverage of the least understood part of systems design: moving from a vague concept and limited resources to a satisfactory and feasible system concept and an executable program. The book provides a practical, heuristic approach to the "art" of systems architecting. It provides methods for embracing, and then taming, the growing complexity of modern systems.

New in the Third Edition:

Five major case studies illustrating successful and unsuccessful practices
Information on architecture frameworks as standards for architecture descriptions
New methods for integrating business strategy and architecture and the role of architecture as the technical embodiment of strategy
Integration of process guidance for organizing and managing architecture projects
Updates to the rapidly changing fields of software and systems-of-systems architecture
Organization of heuristics around a simple and practical process model

A Practical Heuristic Approach to the Art of Systems Architecting

Extensively rewritten to reflect the latest developments, the text explains how to create a system from scratch, presenting invention/design rules together with clear explanations of how to use them. The author supplies practical guidelines for avoiding common systematic failures while implementing new mandates. He uses a heuristics-based approach that provides an organized attack on very ill-structured engineering problems. Examining architecture as more than a set of diagrams and documents, but as a set of decisions that either drive a system to success or doom it to failure, the book provide methods for integrating business strategy with technical architectural decision making.

Genres: Engineering, Nonfiction, Computer Science, Technology, Reference, Architecture, Technical

466 pages, Hardcover

First published June 28, 2000

Reviews

[Nicolas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Très intéressant ouvrage sur l'architecture des systèmes. Il regroupe des visions technique et organisationnelles de ce que peuvent être différents systèmes, aussi bien dans le domaine aérospatial que dans le domaine informatique ou dans les domaines organisationnels. Une des valeurs essentielles de ce livre est d'apporter à un ensemble d'heuristiques qui démontrent bien que l'architecture se situe un niveau orthogonal de l'intérêt de l'ingénierie. En effet, l'ingénieur conçoit un système à partir de contraintes explicites, alors que l'architecte discute avec le client et les équipes en charge de la réalisation technique pour définir un compromis permettant d'exprimer ces contraintes qui nourriront l'ingénieur. C'est à mon avis une lecture indispensable surtout quand, comme moi, on vient du monde de l'ingénieur.

[George Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my favorite book on engineering. The chapters aren't really in harmony with each other. Heuristics, GPS, Political Processes of...?

[Alyssa · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting and fairly easy to comprehend

[Joshua Napoli · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book is a great resource for defining, evaluating and comparing system architectures. Positive and negative case studies are boiled down into concise heuristics. The book develops a taxonomy of system architectures that allows useful comparison between systems. The book is lengthy and very "meta". It is a bit of a personal investment to get through it, but I think that its lessons are useful.

[Gwen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Don lent me this book so I could get an intro into a Systems Architecting Program he took. It was interesting but I expected something a little more substantial on the topic. (Probably more the fault of the discipline itself than the author's.)

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great and though provoking book on how to think about complex systems.