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Principle

Principle

A principle is a fundamental conviction that gives direction. It steers your conscience and behaviour in general. Within architecture, it steers your design choices. A principle is itself not reducible to something more fundamental. But other rules, choices and behaviour can be derived from it.

Origins and definitions

The Dutch dictionary (woorden.org) gives principe three meanings: a “self-chosen rule for how you live” (e.g. not eating meat on principle), a “way something works” (e.g. explaining the principle of a heat pump), and the expression “in principle”. Etymologically (etymologiebank.nl) it derives from beginsel (“foundation”). Synonyms include basis, cornerstone, starting point.

Philosophically, a principle is “a fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of beliefs or behavior or a chain of reasoning” (Cultureel Woordenboek and Wikipedia, Principle). It’s a general truth from which other truths or rules can be derived. It is itself usually not reducible to anything more fundamental.

Wikipedia distinguishes four kinds of principles: moral law, legal law, natural law and logical foundation. A moral law is a value that guides behaviour, such as the golden rule. A legal law is the basis for written norms. A natural law is, for example, Archimedes’ principle. A logical foundation consists of the axioms on which reasoning rests. Four very different applications of the same underlying idea: something that is not itself derived, but from which other things do follow.

What a principle means to me

A principle grows out of learned and lived patterns. These are convictions shaped by experience. You don’t think up a principle in advance and impose it. It forms because you repeatedly encounter a situation, and are left with a conviction about it.

A principle gives direction to your conscience. It’s the touchstone against which you test whether something feels right or not. It also gives direction to what you build or design next. It works forward, not only backward. That fits the dictionary definition (“a self-chosen rule for how you live”) and the philosophical one (“a foundation from which other things are derived”). A principle is both experienced (it comes from somewhere) and guiding (it steers something new).

Principles in architecture

In (enterprise/software) architecture, principles are the fundamental building blocks on which an architecture is built. Not the architecture itself, but the starting points that determine what that architecture looks like and which choices within it make sense. A few definitions from Dutch architecture reference frameworks make this precise:

  • NORA (the Dutch government’s reference architecture): a principle is a “fundamental and generally applicable rule, based on a conviction.”
  • ROSA (the Dutch education sector’s reference architecture): “A normative statement aimed at consistency and coherence.”
  • ArchiXL: “A conviction underlying all of someone’s actions.”

These definitions share something important: an architecture principle is also a conviction. Only this one has been made explicit, and is shared within a team or organisation. A personal principle steers your conscience. An architecture principle steers the consistency and coherence of design decisions. It’s the shared touchstone against which individual design choices are tested. That way they fit together, rather than existing side by side by accident.

A fixed pattern: name, worldview, principle, consequences

Every principle (and every value) on this site is worked out according to the same fixed pattern, with four parts:

  1. Name – short, recognisable, no jargon or technology name in it.
  2. Worldview and context – the context and background of the worldview the principle is built from: which conviction, experience or situation underlies it.
  3. The principle – the core statement, short and unambiguous.
  4. Consequences – what the principle means, in two directions: which new rules or behaviour follow from it, and which opportunities or ways of thinking it opens up. The principle itself (1–3) is universal and domain-independent. The consequences are not. They differ per domain in which the principle is applied, e.g. life/general versus architecture.

This pattern turned out, in hindsight, to be almost exactly the TOGAF template for architecture principles: Name → Rationale → Statement → Implications (The Open Group, TOGAF 9.2). Worldview and context corresponds to the Rationale, The principle to the Statement, Consequences to the Implications.

My own principles and values

  • Value: Openness – the epistemic and human foundation. I know that I don’t know everything, and therefore want to keep learning, growing, and staying open to everyone’s perspective.
  • Principle: Flip Thinking – every model or line of reasoning about reality is a simplification. When something feels unsolvable, adjust the model rather than ignoring reality.
  • Principle: People First – systems serve people, not the other way around.
  • Principle: Tools First – invest first in the ability to change, before making the change itself.

References

Published on  · Last updated on
Event SourcingValue: Openness