A comprehensive list of books on Software Architecture.
People in the software industry have long argued about a definition of architecture. Ralph Johnson famously defined
software architecture as "the important stuff (whatever that is)." I, subjectively, followed his definition while
deciding whether or not to include a specific book.
This is NOT a recommendation list. When I made this, I intended for a comprehensive list excluding low-profile books—see
inclusion criteria below. There was a simple reason behind that: I'm not a subject-matter expert on all these topics. In
fact, I not a subject-matter expert on even a single topic of these. More importantly, I don't know your experience
level nor your preferences. Some people prefer theoretical over practical books (I do). Others prefer foundational over
comprehensive books or dry over engaging books or art-based over engineering-based books. Some people even enjoy verbose
over concise books. Or and or and or.
I thoroughly reviewed all books
tagged with software-architecture on Goodreads and applied
a simple algorithmic rules—see the inclusion criteria below. I don't think the list is perfectly comprehensive. Yet, I'm
planning to update it regularly to make it as comprehensive as possible.
Don't be overwhelmed by the number of books on each subject. Practically speaking, you are supposed to read a few books
on the subjects of your interest. Deciding what to read is your business. Personally, I start by reading a couple of
reviews on Goodreads and examine the book table of content, if available. When in doubt, I read more reviews over the
internet from blogs and the like. Alternatively, you may go with the Goodreads community preferences and start from the
top of each list if you don't have the time to read reviews.
The book must be relevant to Software Architecture; and
The content is not obsolete.
It must be technology agnostic or applicable to a wide range of technologies; and
The book profile on Goodreads matches these rules:
An average rating of 3.5 or above; and
A total number of ratings equals 50 or above.
At least 5 written reviews.
A minimum length of 50 pages.
The books are sorted solely based on the number of written reviews. There are, however, other important factors
worth considering. For example, the average rating, the number of ratings, and the publishing date. Yet, I don't have an
idea to put all these factors in a reasonable mathematical formula. If you have
any, I'd love to hear what you've got in mind.
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Clean Architecture
9780134494166
4.23 3662
2017
Patterns of Enterprise Application Architecture
9780321127426
4.11 3501
2002
Building Evolutionary Architectures: Support Constant Change
9781491986363
3.74 705
2017
Fundamentals of Software Architecture: An Engineering Approach
9781492043454
4.40 364
2020
Software Architecture in Practice, 4th Edition
0785342154955
3.82 608
2021
Architecting for Scale: High Availability for Your Growing Applications
9781491943397
3.56 164
2016
Software Architecture for Developers: Volume 1 - Technical leadership and the balance with agility
9798652551568
3.87 332
2016
Software Systems Architecture: Working with Stakeholders Using Viewpoints and Perspectives
9780321112293
4.10 205
2005
Design It!: From Programmer to Software Architect
9781680502091
3.68 168
2017
The Software Architect Elevator: Transforming Enterprises with Technology and Business Architecture
9781492077541
4.48 101
2020
Righting Software
9780136524038
3.79 76
2019
Analysis Patterns: Reusable Object Models
9780201895421
3.80 246
1996
12 Essential Skills for Software Architects
9780321717290
3.70 118
2011
Software Architecture for Developers: Volume 2 - Visualise, document and explore your software architecture
9798652551568
3.78 108
2016
Documenting Software Architectures: Views and Beyond, 2nd Edition
9780201703726
3.68 174
2010
Software Architecture: Foundations, Theory, and Practice
9780470167748
3.75 65
2008
SOA: Principles of Service Design
9780132344821
3.72 130
2007
Service-Oriented Architecture: Concepts, Technology, and Design
9780131858589
3.65 170
2005
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Head First Design Patterns: Building Extensible and Maintainable Object-Oriented Software
9780596007126
4.28 7574
2021
Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software
9780201633610
4.19 10293
1994
Refactoring to Patterns
0785342213355
4.05 1399
2004
Dive Into Design Patterns
missing
4.78 351
2019
Patterns Principles and Practices of Domain Driven Design
9781118714706
4.35 292
2015
Design Patterns Explained: A New Perspective on Object-Oriented Design, 2nd Edition
9780321247148
3.88 344
2004
Reactive Design Patterns
9781617291807
3.60 138
2014
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Domain-Driven Design: Tackling Complexity in the Heart of Software
9780321125217
4.16 4445
2003
Domain-Driven Design Distilled
9780134434421
3.78 816
2016
Implementing Domain-Driven Design
9780321834577
4.06 934
2013
Domain-Driven Design Quickly
9781411609259
3.59 454
2007
Patterns, Principles, and Practices of Domain-Driven Design
9781118714706
4.36 302
2015
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Building Microservices: Designing Fine-Grained Systems, 2nd Edition
9781491950357
4.18 3792
2021
Monolith to Microservices: Sustaining Productivity While Detangling the System
9781492047841
4.28 389
2019
Microservice Patterns
9781617294549
4.15 333
2017
Production-Ready Microservices: Building Standardized Systems Across an Engineering Organization
9781491965948
3.81 360
2016
Reactive Microservices Architecture
9781491959343
3.63 186
2016
Microservice Architecture: Aligning Principles, Practices, and Culture
9781491959794
3.50 217
2016
The Tao of Microservices
9781617293146
3.95 78
2017
Microservices From Design to Deployment
missing
3.88 80
2016
Microservices AntiPatterns and Pitfalls
9781491963319
3.96 82
2016
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Designing Data-Intensive Applications
9781449373320
4.72 4385
2015
The Model Thinker: What You Need to Know to Make Data Work for You
9780465094622
3.92 493
2018
Big Data: Principles and best practices of scalable realtime data systems
9781617290343
3.82 440
2015
Beautiful Data: The Stories Behind Elegant Data Solutions
9780596157111
3.65 258
2009
Data Modeling Made Simple: A Practical Guide for Business and It Professionals, 2nd Edition
9780977140060
3.76 74
2015
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Enterprise Integration Patterns: Designing, Building, and Deploying Messaging Solutions
0785342200683
4.10 1388
2003
Making Sense of Stream Processing
9781491940105
4.31 143
2016
Streaming Systems
9781491983874
3.92 106
2018
Designing Event-Driven Systems
9781492038221
3.80 190
2018
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Designing Distributed Systems: Patterns and Paradigms for Scalable, Reliable Services
9781491983645
3.58 453
2018
Distributed Systems For Fun and Profit
missing
4.19 326
2013
Security Engineering: A Guide to Building Dependable Distributed Systems, 3rd Edition
9780470068526
4.19 622
2020
Database Internals: A Deep Dive into How Distributed Data Systems Work
9781492040347
4.26 178
2019
Distributed Systems: Principles and Paradigms, 2nd Edition
9780132392273
3.99 357
2016
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Infrastructure as Code: Managing Servers in the Cloud
9781491924358
4.20 316
2016
Cloud Native Infrastructure: Patterns for Scalable Infrastructure and Applications in a Dynamic Environment
9781491984307
3.57 130
2017
Cloud Native Patterns: Designing change-tolerant software
9781617294297
4.24 76
2019
The Practice of Cloud System Administration: Devops and SRE Practices for Web Services, Volume 2
9780133478525
4.38 247
2014
Beyond the Twelve-Factor App Exploring the DNA of Highly Scalable, Resilient Cloud Applications
9781491944011
3.54 91
2016
Kubernetes Patterns: Reusable Elements for Designing Cloud-Native Applications
9781492050285
4.27 101
2019
Cloud Design Patterns: Prescriptive Architecture Guidance for Cloud Applications
9781621140368
4.23 66
2014
Cloud Computing: Concepts, Technology & Architecture
9780133387520
3.78 137
2013
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
The Art of Scalability: Scalable Web Architecture, Processes, and Organizations for the Modern Enterprise, 2nd Edition
9780137030422
4.00 307
2015
Web Scalability for Startup Engineers
9780071843652
4.58 160
2015
Building Scalable Web Sites
9780596102357
3.73 299
2006
Scalable Internet Architectures
9780672326998
3.67 168
2006
Scalability Rules: 50 Principles for Scaling Web Sites
9780321753885
3.97 236
2011
The Art of Capacity Planning: Scaling Web Resources
9780596518578
3.75 212
2008
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
Clean Agile: Back to Basics
9780135781869
4.30 633
2019
Agile Software Development: Principles, Patterns, and Practices
9780135974445
4.25 1201
2002
The Art of Agile Development
9780596527679
3.96 828
2007
Agile Software Development
9780201699692
3.98 390
2001
Planning Extreme Programming
9780201710915
3.91 363
2000
Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises
9780321458193
3.65 168
2007
Balancing Agility and Discipline: A Guide for the Perplexed
0785342186123
3.59 105
2003
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations
9781942788003
4.33 3647
2016
Continuous Delivery: Reliable Software Releases Through Build, Test, and Deployment Automation
9780321601919
4.18 2969
2010
Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk
9780321336385
3.81 431
2007
Devops: A Software Architect's Perspective
9780134049847
3.63 57
2015
Title
ISBN
Rating
Raters
Published
The Pragmatic Programmer: From Journeyman to Master
9780201616224
4.32 17379
1999
The Mythical Man-Month: Essays on Software Engineering
9780201835953
4.03 12295
1995
The Unicorn Project
9781942788768
4.13 4927
2019
Release It!: Design and Deploy Production-Ready Software
9780978739218
4.26 2746
2007
A Philosophy of Software Design
9781732102200
4.14 1516
2018
Site Reliability Engineering: How Google Runs Production Systems
9781491929124
4.23 1980
2016
The Software Craftsman: Professionalism, Pragmatism, Pride
9780134052502
4.33 769
2014
Code Simplicity: The Fundamentals of Software
9781449313890
3.74 501
2012
High Performance Browser Networking
9781449344764
4.50 671
2013
97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know: Collective Wisdom from the Experts
9780596522698
3.62 686
2009
High Performance Web Sites
9780596529307
4.15 690
2007
Software Estimation: Demystifying the Black Art
9780735605350
4.04 911
2006
The Design of Design: Essays from a Computer Scientist
9780201362985
3.76 571
2010
Software Requirements: Practical Techniques for Gathering and Managing Requirements Throughout the Product Development Cycle, 3rd Edition
9780735618794
4.10 713
2016
Waltzing with Bears: Managing Risk on Software Projects
9780932633606
3.97 702
2003
Software Engineering at Google: Lessons Learned from Programming Over Time
9781492082798
4.19 344
2020
Ship It!: A Practical Guide to Successful Software Projects
9780974514048
3.72 509
2005
The Leprechauns of Software Engineering
9782954745503
3.84 147
2012
Software Design X-Rays: Fix Technical Debt with Behavioral Code Analysis
9781680502725
4.20 112
2018
The Site Reliability Workbook: Practical Ways to Implement SRE
9781492029502
4.34 231
2018
Beyond Software Architecture: Creating and Sustaining Winning Solutions
9780201775945
3.72 141
2003
37 Things One Architect Knows
9781537082981
4.35 100
2016
Presentation Patterns: Techniques for Crafting Better Presentations
9780321820808
3.94 123
2012
Chaos Engineering
9781491992395
4.23 112
2017
Container Security: Fundamental Technology Concepts That Protect Containerized Applications
9781492056706
4.48 52
2020
Composing Software
9781661212568
3.88 85
2018
Software Security: Building Security in
9780321356703
3.63 82
2006
14 Habits of Highly Productive Developers
9781735266534
4.05 195
2020
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