Unlock Your Potential as a Practical Software Architect

"The Software Architect's Toolbox" is your guide to bridging the gap between business requirements and software solutions. This book provides a collection of actionable tools, techniques, and templates you can apply from day one to enhance your software design, diagramming, communication, and documentation skills. Avoid complicated enterprise frameworks and abstract approaches; instead, opt for this modern, lightweight approach to software architecture. Whether you are an aspiring or experienced architect, this book equips you with the knowledge you need to succeed.

Topics Covered:

Intro - Tools and Frameworks

A review of the existing tools and frameworks for software architects, with their advantages and disadvantages. This part also introduces the Software Architect's Toolbox, the set of tools that supports all the learnings in the book, built on more than twenty years of experience.

Part I: A visible Landing

• Talking to people. Learn how to conduct compelling stakeholder interviews to gather insights, expectations, and identify pain points.
• Understanding the Business Context: Discover how to explore and define organizational goals and product vision to align with software architecture. Understand the risks of unclear goals and how to establish clear objectives.
• Visualizing your system: Master the art of creating high-level system diagrams to document the current state of your software, including best practices and tips for co-creation and storytelling.
• Setting principles and guidelines: Learn how to set the foundation for your architecture vision by establishing principles and guidelines, identifying current issues and opportunities, and creating a technology adoption table.
• Defining an Architecture Vision and Plan. Leverage existing frameworks and diagramming tools to create your target architecture and the different milestones to lead the teams there.

Part II: Becoming Invisible

• The Architecture Community. Start your journey to decentralizing architecture by creating a space for people to discuss architectural choices and the objectives.
• ... and more coming soon!