Microsoft .NET Architecting Applications for the Enterprise Book Review

This book does a great job of putting architecture into a view that .NET developers and architects can relate to. The book covers design principles and patterns, and then relates them to each layer of a traditional layered system.  It includes business, services, data access, and presentation layers.  The authors include several different patterns for each layer and discuss the pros and cons of each. The book focuses on the technical aspects of .NET architecture.  It does not cover the soft skills need to be an architect, or cover the customer facing skills need to communicate with the business stakeholders.  You won't find much on process either, just an overview.  These missing topics have not taken away from the book, they have made it a stronger book.  There are plenty of resources on how to execute the soft skills and architecture process.  This book concentrates on how to communicate with the development team through solid design and well known patterns and principles. This is a must read for all architects, no matter what your skill set is. A .NET developer looking to move into architecture should make this book their first stop on a long journey.  This will definitely get you off to a very strong start. This book will not leave my side...  until the 2nd edition...