As reported in April's Scientific American, the Feynman-Tufte principle is that "a visual display of data should be simple enough to fit on the side of a van." Edward Tufte's teaching changed the way I think about information, how it is gathered and how it is used. The article contains some thoughts on why Tufte's work is relevant to software architecture and managing complexity, in general, some of Tufte's quotes from the article:
* "Good displays of data help to reveal knowledge relevant to understanding mechanism, process and dynamics, cause and effect."
* on the design process: "(1) documenting the sources and characteristics of the data, (2) insistently enforcing appropriate comparisons, (3) demonstrating mechanisms of cause and effect, (4) expressing those mechanisms quantitatively, (5) recognizing the inherently multivariate nature of analytic problems, (6) inspecting and evaluating alternative explanations."
* "information displays should be documentary, comparative, causal and explanatory, quantified, multivariate, exploratory, skeptical."
Now that is the type of clarity we software architects can shoot for! What are some lessons here for software architects?
* Don't settle for two dimensions when dealing with complex systems and data, instead show multivariate data
* Identify relationships, don't reflexively rely/impose on hierarchies instead recognize where things are intertwingled and show these relationships
* Integrate functional and non-functional characteristics to provide a holistic view
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