Aaron Hanks gets credit for coining this term.
 
Ever heard the old saw that says that software reflects the organizational structure of the team that writes it?  That begs the question: which came first?  The Architecture of the app (to which the organization fit itself) or the organization (to which the design was contorted to fit within).  Usually, the team already exists and the architecture has to fit the team.
 
Politecture – A software architecture that exhibits the effects of non-functional constraints placed or enforced by the political needs of the software development or IT organization that describes, manages, codes or maintains the resulting system.
 
   (term by Aaron Hanks.  definition by Nick Malik)
 
 

By Nick Malik

Former CIO and present Strategic Architect, Nick Malik is a Seattle based business and technology advisor with over 30 years of professional experience in management, systems, and technology. He is the co-author of the influential paper "Perspectives on Enterprise Architecture" with Dr. Brian Cameron that effectively defined modern Enterprise Architecture practices, and he is frequent speaker at public gatherings on Enterprise Architecture and related topics. He coauthored a book on Visual Storytelling with Martin Sykes and Mark West titled "Stories That Move Mountains".

3 thoughts on “Politecture”

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

one × 5 =

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.