1. The network is reliableThese are assumptions developers make when building distributed systems -- like web applications. Of course, each assumption is completely wrong.
2. Latency is zero
3. Bandwidth is infinite
4. The network is secure
5. Topology doesn't change
6. There is one administrator
7. Transport cost is zero
8. The network is homogeneous
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But this is not a diatribe against managers. In many ways, I think managers and developers are co-conspirators. To correct these false assumptions would make it obvious that building distributed systems is wicked hard and can take a long time. In other words, we pretend problems don't exist to compress schedules.
I think this is where the Software Architect comes in. A good architect has seen it all before. He knows the pitfalls. Like James Gosling, he has the Eight Fallacies (or some other canonical rules) pinned to his door. And here's the really important part: In a healthy organization, the architect has the power to change the schedule, to give developers guidance and enough time to do it right.
2 comments:
nice monkey
That's one of our code monkeys. You can borrow him whenever you want.
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