What Is Architecture?
The word architecture has widespread use in a variety of contexts. You can get a
definition for it from the Oxford English Dictionary or, as far as software is
concerned, from the American National Standards Institute/Institute of
Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ANSI/IEEE) library of standards. In both
cases, the definition of architecture revolves around planning, designing, and
constructing something—be it a building or a software program. Software
architecture is the concrete artifact that solves specific stakeholder
concerns—read, specific user requirements.
An architecture doesn't exist outside of a
context. To design a software system, you need to understand how the final
system relates to, and is embedded into, the hosting environment. As a software
architect, you can't ignore technologies and development techniques for the
environment of choice—for this book, the .NET platform.
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