As a software designer over the last ten years, I've become acutely aware of how much like an architect's this trade is. Designing a building, of course, doesn't necessarily require an architect. But one who specializes in architecture and plies his trade over time would most likely run circles around an amateur.

Several years back, several respected software designers initiated the Worldwide Institute of Software Architects. The fledgling organization is growing and provides the kind of peer network that other professions have. Hats off to the practitioners of a new profession ... the software architect!

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Janis Ian * GPS Tracker * New Yorker cartoon * David Coursey/Time * More ...