System Architecture Is Good!

On my last project, I was working on an application that had no architecture at all. To accomplish any thing at all, I was often required to play with SQL statements, connection strings, HTML, CSS, JavaScript and VB.NET. The business rules were implemented in each and every form of the application, and it was impossible to know what the impact of changing a single rule would be. It was hard to make progress in such a tangled mess of code.

I made the case for designing and applying a consistent architecture, but my client was more concerned about new features that somehow always had to be available right now, or with making consmetic fixes. We did a good job patching up the leaky ship that was their application – in fact, we undermined the case we were trying to make for stopping all new development in order to redesign and rebuild the old application. The current application seemed good enough for all intents and purposes.

I have been working on a new project for a few weeks, and I have been able to accomplish more for my client in a short time than I would have been able to in a couple of months for the last client. Although we are working with a database, I was not required to learn about its structure. I simply use the business objects that talk to the database. I can concentrate on the straight forward tasks at hand. Many of the objects I use provide functionality I do not even need to think about or know about to be productive.

What is more, the architecture is guided by a set of values and assumptions that are easy enough to deduce. I am having a good time.