The “more” in the title is a sure sign that this book by Dave Hendricksen is a sequel. And indeed this book builds on his previous work [1]. The goal of this sequel is the same as its predecessor: to enable excellence in software architecture through development of relevant skills.

The first book focused on soft skills grouped into three areas:

(1) Business skills: pragmatism, vision, business knowledge, and innovation;

(2) Personal skills: context switching, transparency, and passion; and

(3) Relationship skills: leadership, politics, gracious behavior, communication, and negotiation.

This book covers the technical skills that were assumed by the first book. So the skills in this book are the foundation on which a software architect builds.

The style, format, and organization of this book are the same as the first book. The same approach is repeated, with the 12 skills once again grouped into three areas. Each skill group is presented as a layer of related skills with each group or layer built on the others. The groups or layers are organized from the bottom up, and the skills in each group are:

(1) Project skills: partnership, discovery, conceptualization, estimation, and management;

(2) Technology skills: platform development, architectural perspective, governance, and know-how; and

(3) Visionary skills: technology innovation, strategic roadmapping, and entrepreneurial execution.

Each skill is covered in its own chapter, with the skills and chapters in the order listed above. The chapters are relatively independent, and are intended to be read in any order if desired, based on the reader’s background and interest. Each chapter ends with a summary and a list of relevant references. No exercises or review questions are included. An index is included. The figures sprinkled throughout the text are not very useful. Too many of them are mostly content free and look like the sort of high-level marketing slides that make a reader wonder if there was some mandate to include a certain number of figures. A typical example is one figure captioned “Learn to say no and stop the train if you are not confident you can reach the destination.” The figure itself simply shows a stylized three-car train and stop sign.

The discussions in each chapter are typically high level. There are lots of lists of aspects or features of a concept and lots of questions to consider when trying to apply or use the skill. Thus, the author gives the reader lots of things to think about. But this is not a how-to book; details on how to do things are not provided. Some of the skills are a lot softer and less technical than others. And of course the skills are valuable in positions other than software architect. There is also some overlap in the skills.

Interestingly enough, the book never defines software architecture nor really discusses what software architecture is, nor what a software architect is or what the role encompasses. Even taking a broad view of a software architect’s job, the reader may wonder whether there can really be 24 essential skills required, as it might seem superhuman to possess all of them. Given the many different roles defined for architects by different organizations, not all software architects will need all of these skills.

Developers aspiring to move into an architect’s role and those newly serving as architects should find some helpful advice as well as some things to ponder and learn from this book.