Delivered Innovation has been given the opportunity to read a chapter excerpt and do an early review of Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.’s new book  The Design of Design: Essays From a Computer Scientist. Brooks is most renowned for his book The Mythical Man-Month. In The Design of Design, Brooks explores of the process of design, focusing equally on the creative and technical aspects of design as well as the bureaucratic, hierarchical, and political interactive. In other words, how can a design process best incorporate (and nurture) the artfulness of design while not compromising the real time needs of the project?
Chapter 6 is entitled “Collaboration in Design.” He begins with the observation:

Most great works have been made by one mind. The exceptions have been made by two minds. And two is indeed a magic number for collaborations; marriage was a brilliant invention and has a lot to be said for it, but notes that, while single or double-minded design works best as a result of the single-minded purpose of design, the practice of team design is absolutely necessary because of, the increasing sophistication of every aspect of engineering… I am impressed that there are no naive technologies left in modern practice.

Brooks explores the drawbacks of collaboration and the ways to take advantage of and manage collaboration, but the section that grabbed our attention most was his key to successful collaborative design – the System Architect.

[The Sytem Architect] must have a clear vision of and for the system and must really care about its conceptual integrity… Only the architect represents the users. And, for complex systems as well as for simple residences, it is the architect who must bring professional technology mastery to bear for the users’ overall, long-run interest. The role is
challenging.

Being in the business of cloud Architecture, we couldn’t agree more. We oversee different design teams and steer their output towards an outcome that MUST please the user, i.e. our client. The challenge is the mixture of expertise with the skills of management while meeting the needs of the client (and sometimes defining the vague or moving needs for the client). Brooks nails it on the head and his incorporation of dry humor into a clear layout of a complex subject appeals to us. We’re looking forward to the rest of the book.

Check out an excerpt from The Design of Design here: [Download not found]