Just Enough Software Architecture

Praise for Just Enough Software Architecture: A Risk-Driven Approach

If you’re going to read only one book on software architecture, start with this one. Just

Enough Software Architecture covers the essential concepts of software architecture

that everyone — programmers, developers, testers, architects, and managers — needs

to know, and it provides pragmatic advice that can be put into practice within hours

of reading.

—Michael Keeling, professional software engineer

This book reflects the author’s rare mix of deep knowledge of software architecture

concepts and extensive industry experience as a developer. If you’re an architect, you

Fairbanks’ focus on “just enough” architecture should appeal to any developers try-

ing to work out how to make the architecting process tractable. This focus is made

accessible through detailed examples and advice that illustrate how an understand-

ing of risk can be used to manage architecture development and scope. At the same

time, Fairbanks provides detail on the more academic aspects of software architec-

ture, which should help developers who are interested in understanding the broader

theory and practice to apply these concepts to their projects.

—Dr. Bradley Schmerl, Senior Systems Scientist, School of

Computer Science, Carnegie Mellon University

The Risk-Driven Model approach described in George Fairbanks’ Just Enough Software

Engineering Science Contract Group – NASA Johnson Space Center

Just Enough Software Architecture will coach you in the strategic and tactical appli-

cation of the tools and strategies of software architecture to your software projects.

Whether you are a developer or an architect, this book is a solid foundation and

reference for your architectural endeavors.

—Nicholas Sherman, Program Manager, Microsoft

Fairbanks synthesizes the latest thinking on process, lifecycle, architecture, modeling,

and quality of service into a coherent framework that is of immediate applicability to

IT applications. Fairbanks’ writing is exceptionally clear and precise while remaining

engaging and highly readable. Just Enough Software Architecture is an important con-

tribution to the IT application architecture literature and may well become a standard

academia to provide a conceptual model, selected best practices from industry to

broaden coverage, and pragmatic guidance to make software architectures that are

ultimately more useful and realistic. His simple risk-based approach frames much of

the book and helps calibrate what “just-enough” should be. This book is an important

addition to any software architecture bookshelf.

This book shows how software architecture helps you build software instead of dis-

tracting from the job; the book lets you identify and address only those critical archi-

tectural concerns that would otherwise prevent you from writing code.