19.5 Summary

Where are the study and practices of software architecture going? Our clairvoyance is no more powerful than anyone else's, but, as with everyone else, that does not prevent us from indulging in some predictions. In addition to more powerful design techniques, an evolution of life-cycle tools to include more architectural information, and more sophisticated component building blocks for systems, we offer a prediction for the future where architecture is concerned.

Fred Brooks was once asked what made his book, The Mythical Man-Month, so timeless. He replied that it was not a book about computers but rather a book about people. Software engineering is like that. Dave Parnas says that the difference between programming and software engineering is that programming is all you need for single-person, single-version software, but if you expect other people to ever look at your system (or expect to look at it yourself later on), you need to employ the discipline of software engineering. Architecture is like that, as well. If all we cared about was computing the right answer, a trivial monolithic architecture would suffice. Architecture is brought to bear when the people issues are exposed: making the system perform well, building the system within cost constraints, achieving desired benefits, letting teams work cooperatively to build the system, helping the maintainers succeed, letting all the stakeholders understand the system.

With this in mind, we can offer our safest prediction. Architecture will continue to be important as long as people are involved in the design and development of software.