Architectural patterns
Architectural patterns
Architectural patterns describe how to structure a whole application, or an important aspect of it. Compared to design patterns, architectural patterns describe larger and more abstract software structures. (Design patterns are sometimes called "micro-architectures" to emphasise the difference in scale.)
The groundwork for architectural patterns was laid by Party of five 1996, whose Party of five patterns include several architectural patterns.
Martin Fowler 1997 also touched on architectural patterns by describing 2-tier, 3-tier and n-tier architectures, and by raising the topic of how to structure applications that depend on databases.
Martin Fowler 2003 greatly expands on his earlier architectural patterns ideas, emphasising layered systems, distribution, web interfaces and databases. These topics are sometimes known as "enterprise architecture" or "enterprise patterns".
Fowler's web site has a list of [of enterprise patterns].
