(Belated response, sorry. Reviewing my comments and replies received.)
Applying Use Cases deeply influenced me. TLDR: Architecture is derived from use cases.
https://www.amazon.com/Applying-Use-Cases-Practical-Guide/dp...
At the time (of the 1st edition) I was still doing UI. Stuff like direct manipulation graphic design apps. Basically domain specific knockoffs of Illustrator.
I call this strategy "outside in architecture". (I'll have to read the book again to see if I stole that phrase.) Whereas pretty much every other dev I've ever worked with started with the building blocks and worked towards the user.
Per the book Design Rules: The Power of Modularity, architecture is the visible interface of a system, and all the design choices captured by that interface. In other words: What the user (client) sees. Even though I now do mostly services and backend stuff, I still have a user interface designer's sensibility. Where I figure out how something should look and feel before figuring out how to implement it. (There's still an iterative back & forth dance, of course.)
Hugs. I'm sure we've all suffered this Kafkaesque torture. But it still sucks.
Have you heard of the CIA (nee OSS) book on Simple Sabotage Field Manual? http://www.simplesabotage.com
It predates Brazil, Office Space, Dilbert, etc. After reading this book, and observing management, it's hard to imagine it's not all deliberate. There's just something inherently evil in bureaucracy.
> ...you could make the argument "You Are Doing It Wrong™"
Ages ago my company's study group tackled Applying Use Cases: A Practical Guide. https://www.amazon.com/Applying-Use-Cases-Practical-Guide/dp... After all the monkey motion with UML, schemes, design patterns, etc, this book was like a clarion blasting away ignorance and ambiguity.
It was so clear. Do the use cases. Then directly derive architect from those use cases. Voila! Impossible to fuck up.
However. Young me learned a very valuable lesson.
Nothing is so obvious and virtuous and good that some whackadoodles cannot, will not comprehend it.
But why?
Obstinance? Actual confusion? Inability to suspend disbelief? White knuckled desperate grasp on prior beliefs? Fear? Moral and philosophical opposition? Refusal to concede control (power)?
I have no idea why.
Whatever the root cause, I've experienced these impasses so many times, I've simply given up.
I eventually learned to do whatever it takes to publicly appease the tyrannical gods of confusion, then do any actual work as able on the down low.