Topics in Architecture - No Fluff Just Stuff
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Topics in Architecture

Posted by: Michael Nygard on January 3, 2010

I'm working on a syllabus for an extensive course on web architecture. This will be for experienced programmers looking to become architects.

Like all of my work about architecture, this covers technology, business, and strategic aspects, so there's an emphasis on creating high-velocity, competitive organizations.

In general, I'm aiming for a mark that's just behind the bleeding edge. So, I'm including several of the NoSQL persistence technologies, for example, but not including Erjang because it's too early. (Or is that "erl-y"? )

(What I'd really love to do is make a screencast series out of all of these. I'm daunted, though. There's a lot of ground to cover here!)

EDIT: Added function and OO styles of programming. (Thanks @deanwampler.) Added JRuby/Java under languages. (Thanks @glv.)

I'm interested in hearing your feedback. What would you add? Remove?

  • Methods and Processes

    • Systems Thinking/Learning Organization
    • High Velocity Organizations
    • Safety Culture
    • Error-Inducing Systems ("Normal Accidents")
    • Points of Leverage
    • Fundamental Dynamics: Iteration, Variation, Selection, Feedback, Constraint
    • 5D architecture
    • Failures of Intuition
    • ToC
    • Critical Chain
    • Lean Software Development
    • Real Options
    • Strategic Navigation
    • OODA
    • Tempo, Adaptation
    • XP
    • Scrum
    • Lean
    • Kanban
    • TDD

  • Architecture Styles

    • REST / ROA
    • SOA
    • Pipes & Filters
    • Actors
    • App-server centric
    • Event-Driven Architecture

  • Web Foundations

    • The "architecture" of the web
    • HTTP 1.0 & 1.1
    • Browser fetch behaviors
    • HTTP Intermediaries

  • The Nature of the Web

    • Crowdsourcing
    • Folksonomy
    • Mashups/APIs/Linked Open Data

  • Testing

    • TDD
    • Unit testing
    • BDD/Spec testing
    • ScalaCheck
    • Selenium

  • Persistence

    • Redis
    • CouchDB
    • Neo4J
    • eXist
    • "Web-shaped" persistence

  • Technical architecture

    • 8 Fallacies of Distributed Computing
    • CAP Theorem
    • Scalability
    • Reliability
    • Performance
    • Latency
    • Capacity
    • Decoupling
    • Safety

  • Languages and Frameworks

    • Spring
    • Groovy/Grails
    • Scala
    • Lift
    • Clojure
    • Compojure
    • JRuby
    • Rails
    • OSGi

  • Design

    • Code Smells
    • Object Thinking
    • Object Design
    • Functional Thinking
    • API Design
    • Design for Operations
    • Information Hiding
    • Recognizing Coupling

  • Deployment

    • Physical
    • Virtual
    • Multisite
    • Cloud (AWS)
    • Chef
    • Puppet
    • Capistrano

  • Build and Version Control

    • Git
    • Ant
    • Maven
    • Leiningen
    • Private repos
    • Collaboration across projects
Michael Nygard's complete blog can be found at: http://www.michaelnygard.com/blog/index.html
Michael Nygard

About Michael Nygard

Michael strives to raise the bar and ease the pain for developers across the country. He shares his passion and energy for improvement with everyone he meets, sometimes even with their permission. Michael has spent the better part of 20 years learning what it means to be a professional programmer who cares about art, quality, and craft. He's always ready to spend time with other developers who are fully engaged and devoted to their work–the “wide awake” developers. On the flip side, he cannot abide apathy or wasted potential.

Michael has been a professional programmer and architect for nearly 20 years. During that time, he has delivered running systems to the U. S. Government, the military, banking, finance, agriculture, and retail industries. More often than not, Michael has lived with the systems he built. This experience with the real world of operations changed his views about software architecture and development forever.

He worked through the birth and infancy of a Tier 1 retail site and has often served as “roving troubleshooter” for other online businesses. These experiences give him a unique perspective on building software for high performance and high reliability in the face of an actively hostile environment.

Most recently, Michael wrote “Release It! Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software”, a book that realizes many of his thoughts about building software that does more than just pass QA, it survives the real world. Michael previously wrote numerous articles and editorials, spoke at Comdex, and co-authored one of the early Java books.

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