Coding the Architecture - architect tag

Mind the gap

Fri, 02 May 2008 10:58:03 GMT

Our industry has a love/hate relationship with the software architect role, with many organisations dismissing it because of their negative experiences of architects that dictate from "ivory towers" and aren't engaged with the actual task of building working software. This reputation is damaging the IT industry and inhibiting project success. Things need to change. This essay looks at the gap between software developers and software architects, offering some suggestions on how to reduce this gap and ensure projects are driven to a successful conclusion.

Read the full essay in our book.

Question of the week

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 18:50:17 GMT

This week's question is a common one that I get...

I'm an aspiring software architect and I'm working on a project as a developer. I'm not going to get an architect role without having some experience, but we already have an architect on my project. What should I do and how do I start down the architect path?

First of all, just because you've not got the word "architect" in your current job title that doesn't mean that you're not involved in the architecture. Consider the skills you've demonstrated as a developer - how would you rate yourself on the role profile? At review, or interview, if you can highlight the "architectural" nature of your experience you might find you can break free of this paradox.

As for building your experience, my recommendation is to take some time to study the architecture of the system that you are currently working on. What is the architecture? How does it work? Why has it been designed that way? These are all questions that you can use to understand the decisions that the architect(s) made. Better still, though, try to spend some time with the architect(s). Tell them about your aspirations and ask them if they can spend some time to walk you through what they are doing and understand the decisions they are making. If the architect is open to having their own work reviewed then this is another opportunity to become more involved. Finally, why not ask to be involved in some of the smaller architecturally significant decisions and work; such as proofs of concept, prototypes and product selection.

Just don't expect some epiphany where you suddenly feel like an architect! As this advice for apprentice architects implies, there are various skills and experiences that you need and will continue to develop. At some point you've got to step outside your comfort zone and experience to develop these skills. Good luck!

First experiences

Thu, 23 Mar 2006 15:07:41 GMT

As I said yesterday, we're going to publish first experiences of being in an architect role and, without further ado, I'd like to present Richard Holdsworth's first experiences. Richard is a recently appointed technical architect with a major international travel company, where he's involved in the architecture of a new system built around a service oriented architecture.

At the time of being asked to perform the role of Architect I felt that I was perhaps at least a year or two from being "technically qualified" to consider myself as such. However, it seemed too good an opportunity to miss so I braced myself for an intense number of months in which I would be branded a fraud.

However, no sooner did my mentor arrive that I began to understand the wider aspect and responsibilities of the role and how it is not an elevation of status above a senior developer but merely a side step from the development team to enable us the ability to view, and be involved with, the whole development process.

As the role is new to my company there were a few misunderstandings early on regarding the job specification and boundaries such as:

How much time we should spend with the business?

Should we be responsible for chasing development progress?

How much code, if any, we should contribute?

I am happy to say that now I enjoy talking to business as much as possible to drive out the design, I'm not expected to provide progress reports, except on my own work, and I contribute as and when necessary to the development effort.

Unfortunately, partly due to my own misunderstanding of the role, I believe I spent too much time in the early part of the project concerned with the documentation that I was expected to produce to senior management when I feel I should have been getting my hands dirty with the actual technology and producing a prototype which would have improved my ability to mentor and not to mention early testing.

As for the other aspects of my job such as code reviews, best practice and other methods to ensure the quality of software development I find it hard to imagine how any IT project can function without an Architect these days.

I like the expression about the architect role being a "side step from the development team". I'd not really thought about it like this before but it makes a lot of sense. Rather than an architect stepping down to do some development, they're stepping back into the development team. An interesting perspective and I can definitely relate to the questions around the boundaries of the role because I had similar questions when I was new to the role myself. Many thanks to Rick for sharing your experiences.

First experiences

Wed, 22 Mar 2006 20:03:00 GMT

Part of my role includes mentoring, and that includes working with people who are experienced architects, people who are new to the role and people that are aspiring architects. For me, it's a very valuable part of my role because not only do I get to help others, it also helps me better understand my own role as an architect. I know that may sound a little strange, but I'm a firm believer that explanation leads to clarification, in everybody's mind.

Something that I thought would be useful to readers of The Pragmatic Architect (which I know includes experienced and aspiring architects) is to ask people that are new to the role to share their first experiences. We've all been there and I think that reading about other peoples experiences is a great way to gain more insight about what it means to be an architect. Also, it provides a way to highlight some of the common issues/misunderstandings/questions about the role, reassuring others that they are not alone on their journey to becoming a technical architect.

A few people have already been kind enough to share their own first experiences and they genuinely do provide some fascinating insight. In fact, some of them even made me step back and think about the role of an architect and how it's defined, which I admit I wasn't really expecting to happen. I'll publish the first of these over the next couple of days. If you would like to share your own experiences and have them published on the site, I'd really like you to get in touch.