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Architecture
Books The Software Architecture Discipline Software Architecture and Related Concerns Your Contributions
Architect Job Postings Architecture Training
- Chicago, IL April 6-9, 2009 Enterprise Architecture Workshop - TBA Role of the Architect Workshop
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Indianapolis, IN
April 27-29, 2009 Architecture Consulting
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Software Architects Knowledge, Activities and Characteristics The domains of competency of the architect may be classified into the areas of: technical knowledge, skills and experience; consulting; organizational politics; strategy and leadership. This framework for thinking about the role of the architect is discussed in the white paper titled "The Role of the Architect," by Dana Bredemeyer and Ruth Malan, and is summarized in ArchitectCompetencyFramework.PDF (6kb). As an architect, you need a thorough knowledge of the product domain, relevant technologies and development processes. But even in the technical area your key activities are different than those of developers. The problems are less well defined, often with unclear or conflicting objectives, and you play a significant role in clarifying what the objectives are. Your focus is more on the implications of organizational objectives on technical choices. You take an overall system view. You are building models of the problem and solution space, exploring alternative approaches, preparing documents and explaining the architecture to sponsors and stakeholders. See TechnologyComptency.PDF (25 Kb). Before one can judge that an architecture is successful, it has to be used in systems. This requires that the community of developers understand and adhere to the architecture. Architects can help address the associated technology adoption and organizational change hurdle by being good consultants to the development community. This requires knowledge of consulting techniques and the consulting process. Particular attributes and talents are also best suited to this aspect of the architect's role. Organizational Politics Sponsorship by the management community, and buy-in by the technical community, are vital to the success of the architecture. The political aspect of the architect's role frustrates many architects who just want to "get the job done". Further, our view of organizational politics, just like the politics of nations and states, is too often sullied by the manipulative, power-grubbing behavior of a few individuals. The best of politics is, however, about working to achieve consensus, to effectively align people through integration of interests, and persuasion and influence rather than authority or dominance. It is about decision making by representatives, with bottom-up delegation from the many to a trusted few. It is about caring passionately enough about an outcome to work at overcoming objections and resistance—not by any means at all, but with personal integrity and insight into the hopes, values, and concerns, that all play a role in making or obstructing progress. For the architect, this often means defending the technical integrity of a system, while acknowledging the organizational factors that have a necessary bearing on the nature of the solution. Architectures have many and diverse stakeholders. Often they are used across organizational boundaries, by other projects, divisions, and even other companies. To gain and maintain the sponsorship of management and the enthusiastic support of other key influencers, you will need to do a good deal of influencing yourself. You really need to understand both the business and personal objectives of key players, and get them personally committed to the success of the architecture. This means listening, networking, articulating and selling a vision, and doing all this continuously over the life of the project. The people doing this well are extremely articulate and confident. They are resilient and driven, and they are sensitive to where the real power is and how it flows. They look for and see the organization behind the organization, and they use this insight to build and maintain support for their projects. See PoliticsComptency.PDF (25 Kb) for a politics competency assessment and development guide that we are developing for architects. An important part of the senior architect's role involves influencing the business strategy of the division or company, and leading the translation of the business strategy into a technical strategy. This requires knowledge of the business, and market and technology trends. Strategy entails finding ways to create unique and sustainable value, and architects who are talented strategists identify opportunities to apply technologies and technical competencies to enhance the capabilities of the business and create value. Activities include those associated with the system envisioning process, such as creating technology roadmaps, conducting industry, market and user analyses, and using these and a variety of other inputs to envisage various new product opportunities from which to select and refine into product and architecture directions for the company. See StrategyComptency.PDF (19 Kb) for a strategy competency assessment and development guide that we are developing for architects. Leadership is required both within the architecture team and within the organization. Within the team, it is vital to ensure that the team is focused and moves effectively towards accomplishing its goals. Within the organization, leadership is required to rally the organization behind a new technical approach to accomplishing the business goals. See LeadershipComptency.PDF (21 Kb) for a leadership competency assessment and development guide that we are developing for architects. More on the Architect Role and Skills
Recommended Books
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Architect Curriculum Design
We are inviting you to help us revise and expand our offering, both in terms of on-line material on this site and training. To do so, we have created an exercise we think you'll find fun, or at least immensely valuable, and we sincerely appreciate your sharing what you learn, in terms of areas where you would like help developing your capabilities and qualities. We welcome contributions to this site. For example, if you have written or would like to write a paper, short discussion article or experience report that is relevant to any of these topic areas, we will be happy to publish it on the relevant sector of this site. Of course, we are also happy to add references and links to your work published elsewhere. Your work will be fully and properly ascribed to you. Please email contributions, or ideas for contributions, to Ruth Malan. Restrictions on Use All material that is copyrighted Bredemeyer Consulting and published on this page and other pages of our site, may be downloaded and printed for personal use. If you wish to quote or paraphrase fragments of our work in another publication or web site, please properly acknowledge us as the source, with appropriate reference to the article or web page used. If you wish to republish any of our work, in any medium, you must get written permission from the lead author. Also, any commercial use must be authorized in writing by Bredemeyer Consulting. |
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