In the last year or so, the software architecture business has gotten especially interesting again says enterprise architect and ZDNet blogger Dion Hinchcliffe in his new 10 Must-Know Topics in Software Architecture in 2009. The industry is finally seeing major new topics emerging into the early mainstream that are potential game-changers, while at the same time a few innovations that have been hovering in the margins of the industry are starting to break out in a big way. These innovations in software architecture are beginning to change the industry in significant ways this year: Cloud computing, non-relational databases (CouchDB, Drizzle), new distributed computing models such as Hadoop, social architectures, and more are on the must-know list while older platforms such as .NET and Java reinvent themselves to remain relevant. In fact, there's so much new going on that the process of taking many of these ideas into our organizations and integrating them into our thought processes and architectural frameworks and bringing them to bear to solve problems and provide value will take more time than most expect."

Don't know exactly if these ten topics are a must-know for SW architects that have implemented their architectures (i.e. they know what are talking about). Marketing people need them for sure. Guido

Don't know exactly if these ten topics are a must-know for SW architects that have implemented their architectures (i.e. they know what are talking about).
Marketing people need them for sure.

Guido

+1

Don't know exactly if these ten topics are a must-know for SW architects that have implemented their architectures (i.e. they know what are talking about).
Marketing people need them for sure.

Guido

The top 10 ways to get venture funding? ;-) Peace, Cameron Purdy Oracle Coherence: Data Grid for Java, .NET and C++

Don't know exactly if these ten topics are a must-know for SW architects that have implemented their architectures (i.e. they know what are talking about).
Marketing people need them for sure.

He's probably right that if you are an enterprise architect you need to know these terms so that when your PHB comes in and says it's crucial that you use next generation distributed mashups leverage crowdsourcing in the cloud because that's what the board wants to hear you are doing. In other words, you'll need to know these terms even if it's just to bat them aside. If you ever appear to not know why "crowdsourcing is going to change everything" you'll lose credibility in the eyes of the technically ignorant and you'll soon have a consultant infestation on your hands.

If you ever appear to not know why "crowdsourcing is going to change everything" you'll lose credibility in the eyes of the technically ignorant and you'll soon have a consultant infestation on your hands.

http://despair.com/consulting.html

Forgot Expert Systems, CORBA, and Neural Networks.

1. Structured Programming 2. Object Oriented Programming 3. Object Oriented Design 4. Object Oriented Project Management (no joke!) 5. Distributed Computing (DCOM, CORBA, you named it) 6. E-Services 7. Workflow/Business Process Management 8. Service Oriented Architecture 9. Cloud (Clown ?) Computing finally { 10. Cm'on its always the same ! It's all about keeping balance between maintainability, complexity, extensibility and costs } It took 100 years to build up aircraft industry by making things; how long will it take to build up an IT industry just with concepts ??

keywords, keywords, keywords, ... when the software world will be freed by the keywords, it will be automatically freed by useless people working in the software world.

Ok, no real comments here but a long cry about another list of fancy words. Paul Beckford just told me in a comment that there are "too many words" describing the same old thing. And some misunderstood (I've written about some of those confusions before) Still, although the list may not match MY 10 top things, I think it is interesting the notion of fading buzzwords (sorry Paolo, I prefer that term) against the new raising ones. Crowdsourcing is the one that I found most interesting euphemism. But aside the words or not the words, there is something I do share with the author, and that is there are new ways of doing things, and new technologies that are actually influential about how we construct applications. Now, not only web and the service concept (although not well understood and worstly implemented) has changed, but things like the fall of sound "ways of doing things" like the 3 layers structure and why not, the relational database dominion, should call our attention. I think I as an architect must not be an expert on those 10 particular things. I actually need to be focused on my applications. Still, I'm reading about all those new ideas simply because one never know.
William Martinez Pomares.
Architect's Thoughts

How come my bullshit bingo bell just burned out? BTW, most of the stuff mentioned has nothing to do with software architecture (the internal structure and design of code), but with technologies and even more general and vague ideas. And I guess WOA is the replacement for the S-word that is not to be mentioned any more? Please excuse me for being exhausted by too many wacky management pipe dreams...

How come my bullshit bingo bell just burned out?

BTW, most of the stuff mentioned has nothing to do with software architecture (the internal structure and design of code), but with technologies and even more general and vague ideas.

And I guess WOA is the replacement for the S-word that is not to be mentioned any more?

Please excuse me for being exhausted by too many wacky management pipe dreams...

+1 But, really, why do we even bother posting sarcastic comments about a blog by a known idiot? Well, OK, I suppose I had an extra 30 seconds of amusement, and that is worth something.

Unemployment. Get to know it, and love it. Roy Russo http://www.loopfuse.com

"software architecture business" ??? - finally i got what this business is about ;-)

Only 10 Things? More than anything A software architect must know what technology/architecture is going to deliver the business value. It is pitty that majority of architects are still running behind the Buzz words which are seasonal and marketing push! http://vijaysasi.itspice.net

William is right! Whatever you think about "this" list, here is an opportunity to discuss what you've placed your list. Yet all we get is bitching. This hardly surprises me, because the TSS community is all about following. The news page is nothing more than an advertising hoarding. I remember when I use to post comments here being pilloried for "thinking outside the box". That just wasn't the done thing. Instead the prevailing consensus was that "commodity" is best. Well you have your commodities now. Shrinked wrapped "products" which solve no ones problems, other then the venture capitalist and other investors who are looking to make a tidy sum at your expense. Some of the things in the list do reveal a trend. For example WOA is on the increase, although I much prefer the term "RESTful Architectures", simply because it is backed by a real dissertation: http://www.ics.uci.edu/~fielding/pubs/dissertation/top.htm A new OO language is also on the block that has massive architectural implications. It removes global state and allows you to build explicit architectural abstractions in code, that plug together like lego blocks. Its called Newspeak: http://gbracha.blogspot.com/2009/02/newspeak-prototype-escapes-into-wild.html No mention of it here on TSS. Or how about multi-cores and concurrency? No one has an opinion? There as been a lot of buzz around Erlang and the Actor model, but perhaps Clojure could fill this space too? No discussion, not debate, no opinion. Serverside people wait for the ads and the latest bandwagon to hitch a ride on, then bitch when the bandwagon doesn't take them where they want to go. Like I say, you only have yourselves to blame. Paul.

William is right!

Whatever you think about "this" list, here is an opportunity to discuss what you've placed your list. Yet all we get is bitching.

Bitches Paul Beckford incoherently.

Its called Newspeak:

If it's from Gilad Bracha, it's got to be at least worth looking at. Thanks for the link. But why didn't you post an article about it? Only those bored enough to look at this hype/drivel post will see this.

Hi James, I only posted because william mentioned my name. I don't think people here would be interested. That would require "independent thought". Besides I'm not sure that Gilad is ready to go public. You are probably the only person left on TSS who would be interested. The architectural implications are enormous. Vissali Bykov another Smalltaker(wash my mouth out with soap), was part of the Newspeak team and has been blogging on the implications of nested classes. He is up to to part 4: http://blog.3plus4.org/2009/03/08/a-taste-of-nested-classes-part-4/ Excuse my grumpiness, but aren't you tired of the same old TSS community drivel and lack of community responsibility too? Paul.

Excuse my grumpiness, but aren't you tired of the same old TSS community drivel and lack of community responsibility too?

The items here tend to be poor but maybe the community needs to do more posting.

Thanks Paul. Right to the point: I miss the deep discussions too. But I'm uncomfortable with something, or at least I think things dos not work that way: I understand you mention these topics (NewSpeak and even the multicore and Erlang) as things not discussed here, but since the thread is about architecturing, it may be confusing for poor architects out there. No, the architect may but does not have to be looking at those. You may find architects looking for things that are now in products, or being pushed by client/bosses to look into buzzwords. The intelligent architecture may look into the concepts behind the buzzwords. But they may not look into NewSpeak, for instance, until it is sound complete and gaining momentum. Right now it is for scientist and "foreseeners". Not to say architects wouldn't get excited about it. I do. But the immediate priority is the business at hand, practical cost reduction by using the cloud, getting for the company more presence and position in market by certificating the buzzword (we are a Web 2.0 company based on SOA on the cloud). Sadly, that is what pays. And it may be the reason TSS is market driven. The actual power of words! Have you heard of S#arp architecture? MS new idea that is a gathering of old winner's at Java dimension, like MVC, hibernate, IoC and such. An MS architect may look at that, since it may be immediate money. Finally, it is not that architects are money driven, but their business is.
William Martinez Pomares.
Architect's Thoughts

Hi William, I agree, you need to keep an eye on the business at hand, but how do new fledgling ideas gain enough momentum to become productised and mainstream if no one takes an interest until they are at 1.0? When I was an architect, I was a forseer too.

Have you heard of S#arp architecture? MS new idea that is a gathering of old winner's at Java dimension, like MVC, hibernate, IoC and such. An MS architect may look at that, since it may be immediate money.

Yes, I have. And this is the problem with taking our lead from vendors. Much of what they are selling is old wine in new bottles. S#arp is a rehash of the domain driven design web technology stack that has been available in java for years (MVC, IoC, ORM). My main point is that we need to take more responsibility for solving our own problems. You don't want to build frameworks for their own sake, but in a big company how about sponsoring a small research project on using say the ATOM protocol as corporate glue? Or perhaps evaluating Newspeak and sponsoring its development as a means of gaining a competitive advantage in the future (Gilad is looking for a sponsor)? If we leave everything to IBM, Microsoft, Sun et al, then we can't complain when what we end up with better serves their needs rather then ours. Paul.

Hi Paul. Agree 100%. Still, ideal world is what you mention and real world is IBM and MS defining what the solution is for the rest of mortals. Can we change that? I guess so.
William Martinez Pomares.
Architect's Thoughts

I think that we must see the evolution of MDA/MDE and their relationship with other technologies like BPM, SOA, Aspects, DSL. Greetings Sashir Estela from Perú