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From: johnson@cs.uiuc.EDU (Ralph Johnson)
Subject: Re: Negative Reaction to OOT
Message-ID: <1991May15.193212.29506@m.cs.uiuc.edu>
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Reply-To: johnson@cs.uiuc.EDU (Ralph Johnson)
Organization: University of Illinois
References:  <10954@rama.UUCP>
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Date: Wed, 15 May 1991 19:32:12 GMT

In article <10954@rama.UUCP>, jec@rama.UUCP (Judy Chapman) writes:
|> 
|> 	3) What design methods can be used to prevent architects from 
|>        creating an architecture that compromises the long term success of
|>        a product.

It is good to realize that this is a problem.

Architectures must be tested.  The way to test an architecture is to
build something with it.  If it is designed to be reusable then you
will have to build several "somethings" with it.  You will probably
find something wrong with your architecture.  It is imperative to
fix it, even though this means that you have to revise all the systems
that you have built with your architecture.

There are some design methods that can be used to reduce the chances
of having problems, but there is no design method (for anything) that
guarentees success the first time.  To engineer is human.  It is
funny that people know this about programs but don't seem to realize
that it is just as true of architectures.

Ralph Johnson