As a software architect you work in a wide-ranging and dynamic environment. You have to understand the needs of your customer, design architectures that satisfy both functional and non-functional requirements, and lead development teams in implementing the architecture. And it is an environment that is constantly changing: trends such as cloud computing, service orientation, and model-driven procedures open up new architectural possibilities.

This book will help you to develop a holistic architectural awareness and knowledge base that extends beyond concrete methods, techniques, and technologies. It will also help you to acquire or expand the technical, methodological, and social competences that you need. The authors place the spotlight on you, the architect, and offer you long-term architectural orientation. They give you numerous guidelines, checklists, and best practices to support you in your practical work.

"Software Architecture" offers IT students, software developers, and software architects a holistic and consistent orientation across relevant topics. The book also provides valuable information and suggestions for system architects and enterprise architects, since many of the topics presented are also relevant for their work. Furthermore, IT project leads and other IT managers can use the book to acquire an enhanced understanding of architecture.

Further information is available at www.software-architecture-book.org.

Oliver Vogel is a certified Enterprise and IT Architect with IBM Switzerland. He leads, coaches, and acts as consultant for international projects in architecture topics such as architectural design, implementation, evaluation, and governance. He is also the worldwide IBM Enterprise Architecture Education leader.

Ingo Arnold is a Global Enterprise Architect with Novartis, Switzerland. In addition to his role at Novartis, Ingo is an Associate Professor at the Universities of Basel, Switzerland, and Lörrach, Germany. He is also a well-known speaker at IT conferences, where he holds presentations on topics such as SOA, IT Security, and IT Governance for international audiences.

Arif Chughtai has been a successful freelance IT consultant and IT trainer for more than 10 years. His specialist fields include software architecture, service-oriented architectures, object-oriented software development, and model-driven software development. He regularly shares his expert knowledge in lectures, presentations, and technical articles.

Timo Kehrer is a scientific employee at the Software Engineering Group of the University of Siegen, Germany. He is currently researching model-based software development, model comparison, model version management, and model evolution.