2.3: Appoint a Navigator

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Page ID: 32365

Serge Demeyer, Stéphane Ducasse, Oscar Nierstrasz
University of Antwerp, INRIA Lille, University of Bern

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Problem How do you maintain architectural vision during the course of complex project?

Solution Appoint a specific person whose responsibility in role of navigator is to ensure that the architectural vision is maintained.

Discussion The architecture of any system tends to degrade with time as it becomes less relevant to new, emerging requirements. The challenge of a reengineering project is to develop a new architectural vision that will allow the legacy system to continue to live and evolve for several more years. Without a navigator, the design and architecture of the old system will tend to creep into and take over the new one.

You should tackle the Most Valuable First so you can determine what are the most critical issues that the new architecture should address, and test those aspects early in the reengineering project.

A sound architecture will help you to Fix Problems, Not Symptoms.

Alan O’Callaghan also refers to the navigator as the “Keeper of the Flame” [ODF99].