The architecture assignment that I found most useful did not come from a book. It involved the attempt to articulate my system to an agent session starting with

The architecture assignment that I found most useful did not come from a book. It involved the attempt to articulate my system to an agent session starting with no background information at all. If the agent cannot deduce the constraint, then you have to write it out. Conventions for migration. Invariant properties of the authentication protocol. Multi-tenant behavior. This act of articulation – making your implicit reasoning explicit – led to a kind of clarity that several months of construction alone did not bring. Three architectural errors emerged instantly. It’s true that learning by doing is the way to go. I would add: learn by explaining it. The agent is an unusually picky audience.