432 pages
English language
Published Sept. 13, 2017 by Prentice Hall.
I've bought this a while ago from my companies professional development budget and it was rather disappointing, there are some useful architecture concepts in this book, but I don't think they are very well explained and instead the book is filled with anecdotes about computer systems that were obsolete before I was even born.
Author makes it very clear that the architecture rules are the same whether it's 70s or present day. The role of Software Architect didn't change much when it comes to core principles and ways of thinking.
The book doesn't provide many practical examples but instead relies on a self-reflection on the personal experience, encouraging to mentally revisit some of the projects that reader used to work on. It definitely revealed many insights and helped me to name, structure and defragment those architectural decisions that were eventually right but at the same time made purely intuitive. It also clearly showed those that were applied incorrectly or were just simply unsuitable.
Highly recommended not only to current architects who will find a lot of food for thought but also to aspiring software developers who want to start thinking about architectural questions in advance and drawing diagrams before the actual programming process.
Clean Code, scaled up.
If you liked what clean code did mostly on a file by file basis and want the same kind of advice for designing applications, this is the book for you.
Like clean code, it is a very easy read without a lot of surprises. If you've designed applications before, this is mostly an experience of "oh, I'm not alone in encountering this problem" and "that's a succinct way of expressing it".
An example is his definition of an architectural boundary: "A line in the architecture diagram that is only crossed by dependencies in one direction". Stable abstractions principle et. al. provide good tools to think about software design and architecture. There are also some (albeit very few) tips on how to apply the principles in practice.
My main takeaway is some added structure to my existing opinions around application design and additional mental models for reasoning …
Clean Code, scaled up.
If you liked what clean code did mostly on a file by file basis and want the same kind of advice for designing applications, this is the book for you.
Like clean code, it is a very easy read without a lot of surprises. If you've designed applications before, this is mostly an experience of "oh, I'm not alone in encountering this problem" and "that's a succinct way of expressing it".
An example is his definition of an architectural boundary: "A line in the architecture diagram that is only crossed by dependencies in one direction". Stable abstractions principle et. al. provide good tools to think about software design and architecture. There are also some (albeit very few) tips on how to apply the principles in practice.
My main takeaway is some added structure to my existing opinions around application design and additional mental models for reasoning about architecture.
The book is however a little abstract in sections, and the last chapter is more autobiography than architecture book. Uncle Bob is very well aware of how well known and respected he is and that is obvious from the tone of the book, which would benefit from a little more humbleness.
I still recommend this book as I think it builds a good foundation of software architecture knowledge, with clear, well defined terms, and is an easy read.
