Summary
This chapter defined and explained the core concepts used throughout this book: architecture, architect, and architecting. The benefits of taking an architecturecentric approach to the software development process were also discussed. Many issues remain unresolved, however, such as what the architect actually does on a software development project, what the architect produces, and how the role of the architect relates to other project roles.
Having defined these core concepts, we turn our attention to the application of these concepts within the overall software development process in Chapter 3, "Method Fundamentals."