Building Software versus Building a House

Building software and building a house have many similarities as well as differences. There are four aspects that I found in which there are some similarities and differences. These aspects are planning, materials, design, and schedules. There are many more aspects that can be used as well as what the aspects have. Similarities

In order to better understand the similarities and differences between software architecture and building architecture one needs to know what software is. According to “Software Engineering Institute” (2015), “The software architecture of a program or computing system is a depiction of the system that aids in the understanding of how the system will behave” (para. What is Software Architecture). The first aspect that I will be talking about is planning. In the planning aspect I found that in both software and building architecture need to have a blueprint. Without a blue print there is no way that one can build any building or home.

In software architecture one needs to have a blueprint in order to base what the user wants within the program. The next aspect that I found were similar in software and building architecture is the materials. Although in software architecture one has different types of materials than in building architecture, one still needs to have materials. The materials used for software architecture are for example the program that will be used to make the program and in building architecture the materials that are used are, for example, cement, wood, electrical wiring, pipes, etc. The foundation on both of these is important because it is the base in which the structures will be built on. Differences

The same way that there are similarities in the aspects there are differences as well. The next aspect that I will be talking about is the design. The design aspect is different in software architecture and in the building architecture. In software architecture once the design is set up, the design could be changed in the future as well as used within a different program. In building architecture the design is hard to change once it is set up. It is also more time consuming to change and more costly. The last aspect is the scheduling aspect. In software architecture one can schedule a project to be done in as little as one month depending on the project.

Within the building architecture the scheduling is more time consuming and could take up more time depending if the stakeholder is approved for certain aspects of the building. In the building architecture one needs to take into consideration the scheduling when it comes to the inspectors. There are times when they are able to go and let the stakeholders know what passed and what did not. In software architecture the program will flag where the program is, making it easier for the programmer to go back and check on the spot when running the program. In the diagram below one can see the aspects as well as the differences in both software and building architecture. Aspects

Software Architecture
Building Architecture
Similar or Different
Planning
Need a Blue Print
Need a Blue Print
Similar
Material
Good foundation
Have a good foundation
Similar
Design
Can be changed in the future
Hard to change throughout
Different
Schedule
Can have the project done is as little as 1 month
Takes months to complete
Different

Conclusion
As one can see there are several similarities and differences when it comes to software and building architecture. There are many aspects that one could take into consideration when trying to see what the differences and similarities are within both software and building architecture.

References
Software Engineering Institute. (2015). Retrieved from http://www.sei.cmu.edu/architecture/