One of the common misperceptions with agile software development is that agilists don't "do architecture." This completely ignores the 11th principle of the Agile Manifesto which states that the best architectures evolve over time. In this article Scott Ambler overviews an agile practice called "architecture envisioning" which enables you to gain the value from modeling without the cost of needless documentation.

Software development methodologies try to improve quality by promoting the tactic of testing "early and often." When a defect is detected, a report is filed, the developer tries to reproduce and repair the problem, and then testing must verify that the modification corrected the problem and did not create any new problems. Because it doesn't prevent the same types of errors from recurring, this approach is time consuming, costly, and inefficient. Errors are introduced into the product at various stages- requirements definition, design, and coding. If we focus our efforts on eliminating defects at the points of error introduction, we can reduce the time spent on error detection and correction. Shankar Krishnamoorthy discusses the best practices for error prevention that Aspire Systems has discovered in their experience of developing almost three hundred products.

Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is becoming a widely adopted approach for enterprises to attain agility and economy while meeting their Information Technology (IT) needs. Unlike previous attempts at component based software development efforts, development in SOA environments stresses code reuse through development, deployment, and orchestration standards. Frank Cohen explains the major trends currently in play that impact the use of XML in SOA and how a new base of computing technology using composite applications, Registry/Repository, Enterprise Service Bus (ESB,) Master Data Management (MDM), Database, and SOA protocols and practices deliver a solution. Frank begins with the SOA basics, explains their applications, and shares specific metrics that you can use to govern your SOA efforts.

• Identify where SOA is applicable, and where it is not
• The importance of performance and scalability

As always, the snake oil bandwagons are circling your organization. But unlike snake oil, a purported health supplement of old, modern organizations bet their success on technologies with often equally dubious claims. Did your organization jump on the CORBA bandwagon? It's now dead. How about outsourcing? Have you discovered all the hidden costs and quality problems yet? Perhaps you were mesmerized by Extreme Programming-a fading religion that once had many believers but few actual practitioners. There are many other software religions with many practitioners but few real believers. Do you use sound business judgment in choosing your technologies and methodologies? Or do you choose it because you heard an impassioned presentation by a noted expert? Ungrounded choices based on testimonials place us squarely back in the days when snake oil salesmen crisscrossed the land.