Jeremy Filliben comments his blog:
I get a little worked up when I see network designers describing our craft as an ‘art.’ I understand where the thought comes from; there is certainly a level of creativity required to arrive at an optimal network design for a given set of constraints and business challenges. It is nevertheless my opinion that we are working within a science, not an art. The key differentiator is whether we can judge one network design to be superior to another. With the traditional arts, it not objectively possible to say one song/painting/movie is ‘better’ than another. We can measure them on various points (Rotten Tomatoes [link] scores for movies, sale price for paintings, etc), but how any one individual perceives an artist’s creation is not open to debate. I like Dumb & Dumber more than Casablanca, and no amount of objective information is going to change my mind!
This is not true with network design. If two network designers review a set of business and technical requirements, they may generate unique proposals. When this occurs, invariably one or more of the following are at the root of the disagreement.
There was a time when I believed that network design was haphazard and random. Today I believe that it’s more art than anything else.
Read more at: Is Network Design an Art?
