Become an Awesome Software Architect: Book 1: Foundation 2019

A fun and informative read, more of an in depth overview than a deep technical manual, just what I was looking for actually. Author uses Typescript to explain his understandings and it works really well. All in all a great work on Software architecture...

In "Become an Awesome Software Architect", Anatoly Volkhover shares with us his hard-won knowledge from many years in the trenches of enterprise application architecture and development. The book has a practical focus and is intended as a primer and recipe book. This is not the place to go for in-depth theoretical discussions. Also, some of the author's recipes are based on unorthodox viewpoints (e.g his preference for RPC over REST). Justifications are provided, but are not argued at length. I found this refreshing, others may find it maddening. Generally, the recipes are smart, actionable, widely applicable and clearly explained. However, the book is overpriced. Although there is a lot of content packed into this small package, the author ends the book by listing additional topics to be covered in future volumes. For the price, it would have been nice to have had that additional content in a single volume. That said, I do hope that Anatoly will continue writing on these topics. I, for one, am interested in hearing what else he has to say.

Some 70% of all software development projects fail (depending on the definition of failure), and this number seems to stay the same for the last fifty years. The complexity of projects grows; new tools, languages, databases, ideas come up; but the projects still take longer than planned, over budget, and stressful for programmers and managers involved. Numerous books are available to address this issue, along with training courses, but they are either theoretical, or limited in scope to a particular language, tool or methodology. This book is a great attempt to address the problems of software development in a comprehensive fashion. The author does not promote any particular tool, giving instead an unbiased overview of what is available for programmers and in what situations what should be used. The book is relatively easy to read, though in some cases I had to check acronyms and definitions. The code samples are short and to the point; they are easy to follow no matter what programming language is your favorite. Quite a few important subjects are not addressed, so judging by "Book 1 - Foundation" on the title page, other books will follow. Looking forward...

With all the positive reviews I thought it would be a really good book. It's not bad, some of it is actually good, but in the end it's mostly a super drawn-out implied infomercial that I paid over $40 for... Many of the examples are hyper specific, and you get the feeling that it's just text fodder to fill up the book despite the fact that it's not very long to start off with.

The book assumes that to really, actually create a good programming product, you need not only good architecture, but also the author on the project. The book implicitly explains and makes it obvious that there are much better ways of creating software much faster, much cheaper, and much better at the same time. However, to find these ways and to actually implement them you need some 20+ years of experience. Or spend 20-25 years researching the topic(s), unless you retain the author. Don't take me wrong, the pitch is implicit. It has very little to do with the "infomercials" out there. It's just price of the book barely covers typing the book. So, how much expertise you could put in without the price becoming unreasonable? Right, very little.

This guide is way beyond traditional books on software architecture. It provides holistic view on what’s needed to deliver, maintain and expand large distributed system. It clearly outlines decisions and agreements software architect has to make at the beginning of the project. There are many real life examples bridging concepts with everyday problems. Abundant diagrams and code samples make complex ideas easy to grasp. To me it was very helpful to see how design and development principles are tied in with maintenance and troubleshooting aspects. I also greatly appreciate author’s insight on practices which work for development, QA and DevOps teams. The guide is fun to read and keeps you engaged like a good thriller. it quickly became popular reading at my work and we are looking forward for Book 2.

Worth maybe $15. Way overpriced.

Very good book, the topics are explained in a simple and concrete way so it's very simple to read. He don't stop much on giving detailed and boring definitions but mention just enought ir order to make a proper research later (if necessary). One of the key points of this book is that after you read It you will be able to put in practice most of the topics. One thing I would like to read on next edition is about error/exception handling and propagation through integrated systems/platforms.

This is perhaps the most effusive review I ever wrote (most of my past reviews are on Amazon.com) I am a startup entrepreneur. I used to dabble with some programming many, many years ago. I started a healthcare startup a couple of years ago. Over the first few months, we breezed through the streamlining our medical processes and fine tune them. We did all that using off the shelf tech-solutions. Then time came where we had to build our own tech stack or we wouldn't be growing. Probably because it had been a long time since I worked on technology, or/and even back then, I hadn't worked on any major projects, I had been dithering over building the technology. When I realized that I was not being very bright, I bought a bunch of books on Software Architecture and started reading them. They weren't much helpful. When I look back now, I realize that they were far too advanced for me. I hadn't been in touch with technology for more than 15 years by now. Then I stumbled on to this awesome book. Read it from cover to cover in just one sitting! In just one day, this book changed everything. I went from not knowing where to start to having a detailed description of good practices. Here are some examples: - Language: Use one with strong typing - Framework: Don't let it trap you - Database: Use CQRS; ditch CRUD - SOLID Principles - Managing latency - Managing error recovery - Logging - Setting up and using CDN - Microservices, setting up, pros and cons - APIs - Batch processing - Multi-tenancy - Runtime infrastructure - Scalability - Redundancy - Traffic Management - Security - Testability - Reducing complexity Obviously, this book didn't make me an expert in any of these subjects. But for the first time, I have become aware of many of them. I now know where I need to acquire additional information. What mistakes I should avoid. What kind of talent I should go look for. It has been about 20 days since I finished reading this book. Between then and now, I finished scoping out an MVP, located a tech-lead and started the production process. As an added bonus, I have enough understanding now to build this system to handle volumes in millions. And building the system into a multi-tenancy one. Other than help me take the project off the ground, I think this book saved me from lots of future heartbreak. If I sound like I drank a bottle of Kool-aid, well, it is my true excitement showing through. Very, very rarely did a book made so much of difference.

Thank you Anatoly. I read it from top to bottom. Your tone is amusing. The only mistake I spoted: load balancers distribute load, they don't scale load. Best. Rebeca.

It's quite an excellent book. I love the way the chapters are designed and the knowledge journey. I can't way to read the part II

The usual list of "must read" books for software engineers always has the same entries on it, but this book definitely deserves to be on there. Fascinating content with a thoughtful delivery format which leaves you wanting more of the high quality, high density information inside.

Pros: As someone who's an experienced developer looking to move into a full time architect role I found everything in this book useful. The writing style is engaging and I'll probably buy Book 2. Cons: There are quite a few typos. The paperback tax is very high on this one. It's good quality but sub-200 pages. I really don't think £38 is justified. Kindle £1.59 Paperback: £38.41.