Future-Proof Software-Systems A Sustainable Evolution Strategy

This book focuses on software architecture and the value of architecture in the development of long-lived, mission-critical, trustworthy software-systems. The author introduces and demonstrates the powerful strategy of “Managed Evolution,” along with the engineering best practice known as “Principle-based Architecting.” The book examines in detail architecture principles for e.g., Business Value, Changeability, Resilience, and Dependability. 

The author argues that the software development community has a strong responsibility to produce and operate useful, dependable, and trustworthy software. Software should at the same time provide business value and guarantee many quality-of-service properties, including security, safety, performance, and integrity. As Dr. Furrer states, “Producing dependable software is a balancing act between investing in the implementation of business functionality and investing in the quality-of-service properties of the software-systems.” 

The book presents extensive coverage of such concepts as: 

• Principle-Based Architecting 
  
• Managed Evolution Strategy
  
• The Future 
  
• Principles for Business Value 
  
• Legacy Software Modernization/Migration 
  
• Architecture Principles for Changeability 
  
• Architecture Principles for Resilience 
  
• Architecture Principles for Dependability 
  

The text is supplemented with numerous figures, tables, examples and illustrative quotations. Future-Proof Software-Systems provides a set of good engineering practices, devised for integration into most software development processes dedicated to the creation of software-systems that incorporate Managed Evolution.

Frank J. Furrer graduated as an electrical engineer at the Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule in Zürich, Switzerland and earned his Ph.D. from the same institution. Afterward, he was active in the industry as an entrepreneur, as an architect, and as a management consultant for Information Technology and IT Systems Architectures. Since 2013, he  teaches as an honorary professor at the Technische Universität Dresden, Germany (Faculty for Computer Science). This book represents the distilled outcomes of his long professional career as a software-systems architect, consultant, author, and educator.