Home Architecture Talk

is software architecture development and software development the same?

Public Comments

1. No. Think about the building trade. An architect designs a building. A builder builds the building. They are different skills: The architect may or may not be good at swinging a hammer, but the builder better be. The builder may or may not be good at drawing a blueprint, but the architect better be. Sometimes people can wear both hats. To build a small tool shed, the architect and the builder are probably the same person. That person draws a blueprint (maybe only in their head, or as a rough sketch on a piece of paper), then they get out the hammer. If you have to build a skyscraper, the very worst first step would be to get out a hammer. Same with software.
2. Nop, generally an architect is a very skilled programmer that is in charge to implement the core foundations of an application that is built on top of such foundations. Foundations include all "plumbing" stuff that probably will not be visible to the final user at all but it is in charge of making the whole stuff work. For example, the architect defines the abstraction layers the application will have, the mechanisms to let it be extended or modified; the mechanisms to make it maintainable; the way the application will interact with the data base, the memory management, the caché subsystems needed to perform the tasks faster and all that stuff.