The action of design inherently assigns a sense of ownership over the object being designed to the person performing the action. Thus, if design breeds ownership, ownership leads to pride, and pride produces dedication. For this reason, some level of design should be delegated to every team member on every project, lending a cohesive, familiar, team atmosphere to an otherwise rote (if not highly technical) process.

Design is, in fact, everywhere in the realm of software engineering; design is in everything that we, as programmers, do; every programmer is an architect on some level. Design, conceptually, engages many different levels, scopes, and definitions when applied to computer software engineering, each as important as the other. While application architecture and Web site design are two of the most obvious (and yet completely different) applications of the concept, design must surpass the stigma attached to it at this level as something that is the domain of a project leader or architect; something to be viewed with a sense of awe and reverence. Instead, the principles dictated by a system's over architecture should be shared among every team member, and should be considered a living project plan, to be modified according to input from the field.

Design is subjective, and at the same time can be described by standards and practices. It could be argued that the Web site hosting this text was designed poorly, but it would be impossible to disagree on whether or not it adheres to commonly accepted design standards (although defining 'commonly accepted' is another subjective debate). With any complex project involving more than one team member, META-architecture (or the design of the design) is a must. A set of simple and easy to follow rules defining the project, its implementation, and each team member's role becomes the constitution of the project; all other work (including specifications, documentation, and models) becomes fluid and adaptable.

Excerpt from "The Art of Software Development", written by Scott Waletzko.