One of my earliest posts on Form Follows Function, “There is no right way (though there are plenty of wrong ones)”, dealt with the subject of trade-offs. Whether dealing with the architecture of a solution or the architecture of an enterprise, there will be competing forces at work. Resolving these conflicts in an optimal manner involves finding the balance between individual forces and the system as whole (consistent with the priorities of the stakeholders).
See the full post on the Iasa Global Blog (a re-post, originally published here).
Form Follows Function 
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