Edit 11 July 2010: Revised Amazon link

I was posting the kind words that reviewers had for my book, but then I got overloaded as they came in very quickly and I was working to get the book final draft out to the publisher. So my apologies to those that didn’t get their own blog post. I have posted the complete list of review quotes, and will be updating it as more come in.

Offline, I have gotten a few additional comments that make me really happy:

Page 79 is awesome. Pure gold.

With luck, other pages are at least bronze. And another:

I really like the book., it reminds me of many things we learned in the MSE program. And it also gave me an idea how I could apply that in a “real world” project. This is definitely a book which I will recommend to my friends!

I’ve been working on the book WAY too long to have anything like an objective opinion on it, so it feels really good to hear that it’s helpful for others.

Well, look what I’ve done. Judy Stafford is one of the co-General Chairs for the WICSA/CompArch 2011 conference and has asked me to be the Local Arrangements Chair. That means that if you have preferences, you should let me know and will see what I can do. Want an event at Chautauqua? Hiking? Let me know.

Philippe Kruchten’s keynote talk from the SATURN conference has been posted at the SEI. His slides are worth taking a look at: moderate in the agile architecture debate but full of real ideas, not just best hopes of compromise.

Thanks to my friend Alan Birchenough explaining the RUP to me, I was able to see how this presentation hinted at Kruchten’s ideas about risk and architecture (p 17 of the slides).

I upgraded this Drupal-backed website theme from Garland to Zen CTI-Flex. Please let me know if you find anything broken and I’ll do my best to fix it. The CSS in the Zen theme is, to me anyway, more comprehensible and maintainable.

Today I sent the electronic book sources to the publisher. What follows is several rounds of copyediting to make sure that you, gentle readers, don’t have to suffer through typos, etc. Sadly, it will take 5-6 months in the production process, so it will arrive on bookshelves (whatever those are) and on Amazon in November or December 2010.

Thank you to everyone who has helped me along the way with supportive comments, reviews, and all kinds of other help!

I’m honored to have received the following endorsement from Michael Keeling, a blogger on software engineering. I met Michael at the last OOPSLA conference while attending the workshop on Agile and Software Architecture. He is a graduate of CMU’s Master of Software Engineering program.

Just Enough Software Architecture says what everyone is thinking but can’t say because they are tied to various methodologies: Big Design Up Front is bad, you don’t have to document everything, and everyone from the lowest programmer to the project manager needs to understand not just what the architecture of the system is but also why that architecture was chosen. The risk-driven approach to design presented in this book helps software developers understand how much design is needed so they can quickly get back to writing code and providing value to customers in the form of working software.

If you’re only going to read one book on software architecture, start with this one. Just Enough Software Architecture covers the essential concepts of software architecture 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, Software Engineer at Net Health Systems Inc.

I’m honored to have received the following endorsement from a client who works at at NASA’s Johnson Space Center.

The Risk-Driven Model approach described in George Fairbanks’ Just Enough Software Architecture has been applied to the eXtensible Information Modeler (XIM) project here at the NASA Johnson Space Center (JSC) with much success.

George’s approach illustrated to the customer why the system was designed the way it was from its service layer, data-access layer, dependency injection support, and even its data architecture. The high-high quality attribute pairs that fell out of the architecture process justified the tasks, schedule, and cost of the project. The modeling constructs have helped communicate the architecture among all team members and even to prospective new customers. The architecture has allowed the XIM project to be a success here at JSC and it can help your project be a success as well.

It is a must for all members of the project from project management to individual developers. In fact, it is a must for every developer’s tool belt. (The Code Model section and the anti-patterns alone are worth the cost of the book!). Using “Just Enough Software Architecture” and involving the whole project team in the approach will go a long way towards project success.

—Christopher Dean, Chief Architect, XIM, Engineering Science Contract Group – NASA Johnson Space Center

I’m honored to have received the following endorsement from a friend who works at Microsoft. I previously worked with Nicholas at Carnegie Mellon in David Garlan’s software architecture research group.

Just Enough Software Architecture will coach you in the strategic and tactical application of the tools and strategies of software architecture to your software projects. The first contribution of this book is a insightful guide that will help you identify the driving characteristics of your project and develop goals, value propositions, and implementation strategies for the role of architectural modeling in your project. Dr. Fairbanks goes on to provide clear instruction in the tactics and the tools of architectural modeling that will enable you to achieve your goals for the overall project. 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