You can always tell the cohesiveness of the architectural vision of a product, by analyzing its architecture. From what I have seen, a lot of products suffer from what I describe as the Long-Tail Effect. And the longer the product has been out in the market, the longer the length of this tail.
The long-tail is a graphical depiction of how deeply steeped a product is in its legacy past. In my view, this can be primarily attributed to a lack of a cohesive vision over time.
It is important to understand this aspect of product evaluation, especially if you are considering hanging on to your acquisition for a long period of time. You have to find the right balance between product maturity and its architectural cohesiveness. In my view, the long-tail ends up negatively skewing the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). The more steeped a product in its past, i.e., the longer the tail, the more the effort that is required to maintain the product over time.
1 comment:
It seems several important concepts are related to the tail ;-)
It's also critical to provide sound stewardship of the product architecture over the life of the product.
All too often, a product goes to market with a perfectly appropriate architecture, aptly satisfying stakeholder needs, but immediately begins to decay under the forces of maintenance and product evolution. This is frequently the result of not clearly communicating and adhering to the characteristics, principles, and objectives of the architecture as intended.
Brian
http://blog.softwarearchitecture.com
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