Training Services Overview

Enterprise Architecture Workshop

Software Architecture Workshop

UML and the Visual Architecting Process Workshop

Component Design Class

Role of the Architect Workshop

Architecture Vision Workshop

Architecture Fundamentals Class

Consulting Services Overview

Software Architecture Assessment

Architecture Program Management (or see our brochure --services.pdf 63kb

--VisionFlier, 37kb)

Architect Competency Development

Background on Architect Skills and Personal Development

The role of the architect is a challenging one, in that to be successful the architect has to have deep and sound technical skills, yet be very competent in many of the areas associated with management--but with a strongly technical orientation. For example, where business executives need to be talented at business strategy formulation and execution, architects need to be able translate business strategy into a technical strategy that will be the foundation for competitive advantage, and lead the implementation of that technical strategy. Our white paper on the "Role of the Architect" (role.pdf) goes into these areas of competency in more detail, but we will summarize them here. The architect needs to have competencies in the following areas:

• technical

• strategy

• organizational politics

• consulting

• leadership

Some of these competencies are developed (they generally fall into the "Know/Do" columns of the architect competency matrix in the "Role of the Architect" white paper) and some are intrinsic personal characteristics (in the "Be" column). Of those that are developed, some can be learned in a class or workshop, or from a book, and some are hard-won through experience. Even in the area of personal characteristics, some can be improved with awareness, attention and practice, and some mature as the person gains life and work experience (yes, gray hair).

This has implications for architect competency development programs. There is a common misconception that architect skills can only be gained by experience, not in the classroom or from a textbook. We have only to look at the management discipline to realize that though experience counts enormously, there are also intrinsic characteristics on the one hand, and learned concepts, models, techniques, etc., on the other, that make one person a more effective manager than another. There is a fairly rich tradition of management development programs, from extension programs at universities to industry training classes on wide-ranging topics of relevance to management and leadership. 

We believe the same can be done in the field of Enterprise and Software Architecture. Our mission at Bredemeyer Consulting is to help architects develop relevant competencies and help organizations build strategic advantage through architecture. To do this, we are continuously enhancing our architect competency development programs so that we can offer architects a mix of focused learning opportunities and mentoring to build key skills more rapidly than by the random path of the average job experience. We also help build self-awareness and opportunities to practice to enhance intrinsic qualities and skills that are important to success in the architect role. 

We like to emphasize that while it is important to learn from experience, it is less costly to learn from the experience of others! To that end, we are constantly watching for what works well and what does not, so that we can pass those lessons on, be they in the form of architecture fragments and patterns, pitfalls to avoid, best practices to repeat, or principles and guidelines to follow. We also limit the "talking heads" lecture style of teaching, which, though it can be quite entertaining and inspirational, is less effective than learning through application and practice.

Architect Development Programs

We present these competency development programs in different formats:

Group programs

• Architectural Congresses: regular one-day meetings focused on learning skills that can be applied in the coming weeks on the job, to allow the participating architects the opportunity to practice and deepen skills.

• Community-of-Practice programs: a combination of community forums (community web site, meetings, review and advice panels, mentoring, etc.) oriented at building the community of architects and facilitating their sharing of experience and architecture work products. (This is very complementary to, and may be integrated with, an Architectural Congress series.)

Team programs

• Team workshop: We teach our 4-day Software Architecture or Enterprise Architecture Workshop (and 1-day Role of the Architect Workshop, if desired) to an intact project team, and focus the exercises on the architecture work that the team is responsible for. This allows the team to make valuable progress on their project while learning architecture concepts, heuristics and techniques, and the Visual Architecting Process.

• Just-in-time training and mentoring: We teach what the team needs to know for the next phase of their project, they practice what they have learned while completing an iteration of the project under our guidance, we debrief what they have learned to highlight lessons learned and identify improvement opportunities, and then repeat the learning and project work cycle on the next project iteration. This has the same benefits as the team workshop, in terms of learning in the context of getting work done on the project at hand. It is even more effective, however. 

• Architecture incubators: We guide the project team through an intense series of architecting process cycles, helping them to quickly create a viable architecture. 

Individual programs

• We offer open enrollment workshops that provide opportunities for individual architects to focus on areas for personal development. These workshops can also be brought in-house. A number of corporations run our workshops internally, allowing their architects to sign up for these on an open enrollment basis within the company.

In addition to these more formalized formats, we are happy to work with clients to tailor-make a competency development program for their architects.

For more information on any of these services, please call Bredemeyer Consulting at (812) 335-1653. 

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