This article on PC's Blog sparked off this writeup on defintions of Architecture versus design.
There is a subtle difference between architecture and design and it is easy to identify the difference if you look at it from a different viewpoint
Say you are building a mall, which part of the process is architecture and which part is design?
You can make a comparision here and say that the architecture part is conceptualising the whole mall, what it looks like from inside/outside, how the building interacts with air,light. what are the aesthetics involved.
Architecture is also associated with the concept of style. ( art deco, renaissance, modern,gothic,etcetera)
which we can map to patterns in the software space.
When it comes down to design ...you are more concerned with how you are implementing the architecture, whether it is technically feasible with existing design or requires new design.How will each element of the architecture be specified and built.
The design needed to implement a particular architecture may be different based on specifics . so you can say that two buildings may be same architecturally but may have different designs based on specifics of each building,
Mapping these to the software space , Architecture defines what the software looks like from an external and internal view.
The design defines how the internal and external views are implemented to achieve the architecture .
Further abstracting it , Architecture is definition , design is implementation.
There is a subtle difference between architecture and design and it is easy to identify the difference if you look at it from a different viewpoint
Say you are building a mall, which part of the process is architecture and which part is design?
You can make a comparision here and say that the architecture part is conceptualising the whole mall, what it looks like from inside/outside, how the building interacts with air,light. what are the aesthetics involved.
Architecture is also associated with the concept of style. ( art deco, renaissance, modern,gothic,etcetera)
which we can map to patterns in the software space.
When it comes down to design ...you are more concerned with how you are implementing the architecture, whether it is technically feasible with existing design or requires new design.How will each element of the architecture be specified and built.
The design needed to implement a particular architecture may be different based on specifics . so you can say that two buildings may be same architecturally but may have different designs based on specifics of each building,
Mapping these to the software space , Architecture defines what the software looks like from an external and internal view.
The design defines how the internal and external views are implemented to achieve the architecture .
Further abstracting it , Architecture is definition , design is implementation.
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