I have been writing a lot for my upcoming BizTalk book and after locking myself away in my office I often turn to The Modern Japanese Garden to relax. Besides being a refreshing reminder why digital books will never have the place in my life that physical books do (the images are amazing), the book helps me relax my mind and focus my thoughts.

I've always appreciated Japanese design aesthetic, but it was not until learning more about Japanese gardening in particular I began to appreciate why. A quote from the book above reads: "As in sumi painting, we should remove, not add, and so stimulate the imagination". I find myself today reviewing many BizTalk designs both of my own and by others and one thing strikes me that made that quote stand out in my mind all day. Odd as it may seem the orchestration canvas can almost be likened to a garden. You run into orchestrations that are like Victorian gardens: highly organized, regimented, packed with components and shapes. You also run into some that are like Japanese gardens: profound in their simplicity. I certainly started in what I would now call the Victorian School of Orchestration Design, but have found my way to the school which now I subscribe; the Japanese school.

In fact the most successful BizTalk solutions I see are remarkable for their simplicity. The same holds for non-BizTalk solutions. I guess what I'm driving at is that no matter what you prefer in garden design, software should be made as simple as possible and large busy orchestrations are generally not that simple despite the visual nature of the design canvas.