Skip to main content

ROI on Architecture

Bill Venners has started an interesting thread on software architecture and ROI at Artima.
Here is my response to the posting:
There are two forces that a software usually has to reckon with. Changes in business requirements and changes in technology. Let's say we build an ERP system. Some business rules in the accounting module might have to be modified due to changes in tax laws. Parhaps the client might want to produce more reports or change some existing ones. The client might want to change the UI. Brainstorming with domain experts and clients will most likely help us make a comprehensive (though not all-encompassing) list of requirements that can change in the next let's say three years. With some further thought we may also be able to attach a probablity of change. If we incorporate enough flexibility for high probablity changes then we will get a good return on investment on the architecture. I think this is the middle ground between an overly simplified architecture and a very complex one. The other force that acts on our architecture is changes in technology. Had we created our ERP system with an amateuer homegrown MVC kernel, then we might at some point feel the need to use Struts or an equivalent framework. The refactoring effort will depend on our choices of classes and their responsibilities. If we have used good OO priciples and ensured that each class has a coherent set of responsibilities and the methods are well structured, then we might actually be able to reuse a large part of our existing code base with minor modifications in the new architecure. What if we have to face a drastic technological change, which will render our current code base useless? This is possible though not very likely. Technological changes do not usually happen overnight. There is enough indication before a promising technology becomes mainstream. If we adopt the practice of constant refactoring then we should be able to adapt to the new tecghnology gradually.I think there is a definite value to a well thought architecture. This value is maintained if the thought on architecture is not limited to the architecture phase, but rather is a continous process.Bill, you mention diminishing returns on code quality. How do you define code quality, and why does creating good quality code take more time? Good quality code is not bulkier than mediocre code. I think it is effort that is spent thinking on what to code, or how to structure code that is time consuming. If we constantly practice writing good code then this thought process becomes second nature, and it does not take a lot of time. The extra time it does take is worth more than the effort we would have to put in to fix bugs.Is it possible that if programmers had a lot of discipline and dilligence then they would produce good quality code by deault?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Commenting your code

Comments are an integral part of any program, even though they do not contribute to the logic. Appropriate comments add to the maintainability of a software. I have heard developers complain about not remembering the logic of some code they wrote a few months back. Can you imagine how difficult it can be to understand programs written by others, when we sometimes find it hard to understand our own code. It is a nightmare to maintain programs that are not appropriately commented. Java classes should contain comments at various levels. There are two types of comments; implementation comments and documentation comments. Implementation comments usually explain design desicisions, or a particularly intricate peice of code. If you find the need to make a lot of implementation comments, then it may signal overly complex code. Documentation comments usually describe the API of a program, they are meant for developers who are going to use your classes. All classes, methods and variables ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Inheritance vs. composition depending on how much is same and how much differs

I am reading the excellent Django book right now. In the 4th chapter on Django templates , there is an example of includes and inheritance in Django templates. Without going into details about Django templates, the include is very similar to composition where we can include the text of another template for evaluation. Inheritance in Django templates works in a way similar to object inheritance. Django templates can specify certain blocks which can be redefined in subtemplates. The subtemplates use the rest of the parent template as is. Now we have all learned that inheritance is used when we have a is-a relationship between classes, and composition is used when we have a contains-a relationship. This is absolutely right, but while reading about Django templates, I just realized another pattern in these relationships. This is really simple and perhaps many of you may have already have had this insight... We use inheritance when we want to allow reuse of the bulk of one object in other ...
3 comments
Read more

Planning a User Guide - Part 3/5 - Co-ordinate the Team

Photo by  Helloquence  on  Unsplash This is the third post in a series of five posts on how to plan a user guide. In the first post , I wrote about how to conduct an audience analysis and the second post discussed how to define the overall scope of the manual. Once the overall scope of the user guide is defined, the next step is to coordinate the team that will work on creating the manual. A typical team will consist of the following roles. Many of these roles will be fulfilled by freelancers since they are one-off or intermittent work engagements. At the end of the article, I have provided a list of websites where you can find good freelancers. Creative Artist You'll need to work with a creative artist to design the cover page and any other images for the user guide. Most small to mid-sized companies don't have a dedicated creative artist on their rolls. But that's not a problem. There are several freelancing websites where you can work with great creative ...
Post a Comment
Read more