Best Software Architecture Books

Full discussion on Microsoft forum

I agree with the other responses to some extent – reading a book on C# syntax will not make you a good programmer, nor will reading a book on software architecture make you good at architecture. On the other hand, there were plenty of clever Roman engineers but any engineering student today can build things better than those Roman engineers. The difference is the knowledge we can apply.

So where do you get knowledge about software architecture? One place is your experience building systems. Another is conversations with other developers or reading their code. Yet another place is books. I am the author of a book on software architecture (Just Enough Software Architecture by George Fairbanks) but let me instead point you to some classics:

That’s just a short list and just because I didn’t list something doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. If you are looking something free to read immediately, I have three chapters of my book available for download on my website.