16 Solution Architect Anti-patterns
posted by John Spacey, April 18, 2011A few common anti-patterns that every solution architect should know.
1. Re-inventing the wheel
Needlessly engineering a proprietary solution to a problem that already has a standard solution.Example: Building your own web server.
2. Technology Proliferation
Needlessly increasing the complexity of the technology stack.Example:The organization uses three web server products and you introduce another.
3.Over Engineering
Building complex functionality when a simple solution would suffice.Example: Introducing a complex workflow product to handle simple approvals.
4. Under Engineering
When the architecture can not support the business requirements.Example: A solution that can not support business volumes (performance requirements).
5. Stubborn Silo
Refusing to use common solutions without a good reason.Example: Building point to point integrations instead of using the enterprise ESB.
6. Bleeding Edge
Using the latest hype technology before all the bugs have been worked out.Example: Expensive hardware that is marginally faster than slightly older models.
7. Silver Bullet
When architects use a single technology for all projects.Example: Using SOA for everything — even when there is zero chance of service reuse.
8. Ivory Tower
A highbrow or ascetically pleasing design that is not practical.Example: Spending excessive time designing a elaborate solution to a simple problem.
9. Garden in the Desert
Building a solution on the wrong platform.Example: Building a complex business application with office productivity software.
10. Vendor Lock-in
Building too much functionality on a proprietary platform.Example: Using one large vendor for all your systems.
11. Gold Plating
Adding bells and whistles to a system that don't add value.Example: Optimizing a mobile website for devices that few of your customers own.
12. Politics Oriented Architecture
Allowing office politics to interfere with design decisions.Example: The CRM has the data you need but your boss has a bad relationship with the CRM team — so you get the data from some downstream system that has stale data.
13. Path Of Least Resistance
A lazy architecture that fails to plan for change — choosing the cheapest implementation.Example: Choosing point to point integration over ESB because it is easier.
14. Over the Head
Ignoring requirements that the architect fails to understand — assuming they have no impact.Example: Business requirements specify compliance with a set of regulations — architects ignore the requirement because they don't understand it.
15.Perception Mismanagement
When the solution architect makes promises and then can't deliver.Example: Promising real time calculations that are almost impossible to calculate in real time.
16. Pattern Happy
Overuse of patterns.Example: Designs that have factories that do nothing.
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