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App Arch Guide 2.0 Key Features

  • Article

One of my colleagues on the patterns & practices team, David Hill, collected and distilled feedback on what people would like to see from the App Arch Guide 2.0 project:

  • Book, 180-200 pages in length. Descriptive & conversational tone. Lots of diagrams.
  • The guide will provide a description/overview of the Microsoft custom app dev platform and the main technologies and capabilities within it.
  • The guide will provide guidance to help folks choose the right architecture for their application.
  • The guide will provide guidance to help folks choose the right technologies for their application (with particular focus where there are multiple/overlapping MS technologies that could be applied).
  • The guide will provide guidance on the C3, architectural ‘–ility’ issues to be considered – performance, security, scalability, manageability, deployment, communication, etc.
  • The guide will not provide detailed how-to/checklist guidance on any one technology/app type/technique/pattern/-ility, but it will serve to provide jumping off points to more detailed guidance.
  • The guide will be structured around  a canonical app frame that describes at a meta-level, the tiers and layers that an architect should consider.  Each tier/layer will be described in terms of its focus, function, capabilities, common design patterns and technologies.
  • The guide will describe 5-7 canonical application archetypes to illustrate common application types. Each archetype will be described in terms of the target scenarios, technologies, patterns and infrastructure it contains.  Each archetype will be mapped to the canonical app frame.
  • It will be noted that some apps will not fall cleanly into these archetypes, and that they are illustrative of common app types and not comprehensive or definitive.

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Comments

  • Anonymous
    September 11, 2008
    We posted an early draft of our guidelines for the following areas: Architecture and Design Guidelines

  • Anonymous
    September 12, 2008
    Looking good and indeed it's time for an update. I see a focus on implementation details for specific parts/layers of the applications. Is there a way to add an overall application guidance on how to implement bussiness processes. The first guide explained each layer. I like to see a consistent application architecture on how to fit all the layers together, like the domain driven model architecture. To place an OO model, including meta-data at the center and let all the layers use and reuse common info like field constraints and business rules. This gives us for example ASP.NET Dynamic data where you specify the object and fields to see and it knows how to paint itself. Another subject is some guidance on the translation of business processes into application workflows. Not how to split up the work into many small web services and how to link them with bizztalk. But How can I implement a complete workflow with at least 3 screens/pages, branches to other screens based on business logic checks and a transaction spanning the complete workflow.

  • Anonymous
    September 14, 2008
    Hey Andre - It sounds like you want more on overall arch styles and app patterns for dealing with business rules, OR/mapping, and structuring your app for effective workflow.  We're still shaping the guide, so I'll keep these in mind.  We have a lot of ground to cover, so it's a question of breadth/depth -- but the topics you called out are significant and practical.

  • Anonymous
    October 02, 2008
    For a long time the application architecture guidance from the patterns & practices team remained