Microsoft's patterns & practices group has published Application Architecture Guide 2.0 Beta1, a book containing principles, patterns and practices for designing the architecture of applications built on the .NET Framework. The intended audience is solution architects and development leaders.
The book consists of the following parts:
- Part I, "Fundamentals," provides you with the fundamentals to understand architecture design techniques and strategies.
- Part II, "Design,” provides overarching design guidelines and best practices that can be applied to any application type or application layer, including how to design communication and plan for services.
- Part III, "Layers,” provides architecture and design approach as well as best practices for each layer, including presentation, business, service, and data access.
- Part IV, "Quality Attributes,” provides specific guidance on quality attributes such as security, performance, etc.
- Part V, "Archetypes – Design and Patterns,” provides patterns and design frames for each application type archetype, including service applications, web applications, rich client applications, rich Internet applications and mobile applications.
According to patterns & practices Principal Program Manager and co-author J.D. Meyer, the book tries to help with:
- Choosing the right architecture for your application.
- Choosing the right technologies
- Making more effective choices for key engineering decisions.
- Mapping appropriate strategies and patterns.
- Mapping relevant patterns & practices solution assets.
The guide is taking into consideration the following factors: application types, architecture styles, architecture frames, scenarios, quality attributes, and requirements/constraints as shown in the image below:
The guide uses the following reference architecture:
Other notable patterns & practices guides are: Enterprise Library v4.1, Acceptance Test Engineering Guidance.