Once again
the end of the world didn’t happen as it was predicted… and I feel safe to say that since you
are reading this blog post the prediction must have been wrong. Despite all the
efforts, worries, planning and money people all over the world are spending on
the final Armageddon it just doesn’t seem to happen.
The Maya
Calendar back in the 5th century BC stops counting today
and some people translate this fact to that this must mean that the world can
no longer exist because one of the calendars available stops counting (or at
least transferring into a new era).
But think if the
architect behind the Maya Calendar just thought that there is no reason to
continue with current technique for the Maya Calendar since by December 21th
2013 (Gregorian counting) someone have probably invented a new technique or
method for the purpose of counting days and years that is more accurate than
the one he did.
Thinking like this was probably a correct decision to take
since that one thing we know for sure is that mankind is constantly evolving and processes, techniques and “calendars” that is innovate and
accurate today are probably hopeless outdated 7000 years later. Unfortunately
the Maya calendar architect forgot to document this architectural decision
which led to that people of today is worried for no reason.
As
architects we sometimes have to take design decisions that aren’t necessary the
absolute best from a technical point of view but it services its business
purpose. This is most often the correct decision to take but to avoid ending up
as the Maya calendar with descendants worrying or spending unnecessary amount
of money just because that a design choice was not documented.
Keep this
in mind when designing solutions. Do not just document what the solution does
also include a motivation for why it is designed as it is and what it doesn’t.
On what grounds are the decisions taken? Was it due to time restrictions,
technical limitations or because you had the technical competence on that
platform?
Architectural
design decisions are sometimes turning into a truth that no one dears to change
and if the considerations that were taken at design time are left out then the
same decisions might be taken again when a system are being changed even though
the conditions for a better solution are available at the time of the change.
If the Maya
calendar architect had just added a small architectural motivation stating that; The
background to the Mayan calendar is divided into eras is because otherwise I
would never be finished before the weekend and then I have no Friday beer… That
would for sure helped us 7000 years later to not worry about our little planet
would be no more.
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