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!

Question of the week

Fri, 28 Mar 2008 11:15:37 GMT

We get a number of question from people about software architecture and since most of the answers are applicable to a wider audience, we thought it would be good to share them. For this reason, we're going to post a question of the week (we will anonymise and paraphrase where appropriate). Feel free to e-mail us your own questions or to use the Google Group.

The first question is from an aspiring .NET architect.

My primary skills are VB.NET, C#, SQL Server and VB 6.0. I have read your article on interviewing architects and I would like to move my career into software architecture. What kind of preparation is required and what kind of interview questions might I be asked during a .NET architect interview?

I think that the first step is to understand what being "an architect" means to you and how it relates to your current skillset. Taking the technology side of things first, given your .NET experience, what technology gaps (if any) do you have? Is your experience broader or deeper? Then, once you understand where your technology skills are, you can start to look at what the role of an architect entails. I'd suggest looking at the simplified role profile that we put together as a first point of reference. This should give you some guidance as to the areas you need to cover, but it does depend on what sort of architecture you want to move into (e.g. application, system, etc).

As far as interviews are concerned, the questions you get asked will largely be dependent on the organisation interviewing you. Specifically, it depends on how they view "architecture" and how hands-on their "architects" are. I think you need to understand the role that you want to undertake and then pitch yourself appropriately through your CV/resume. Also, make sure that interviewers understand this too and you'll avoid tricky situations where you get asked all sorts of enterprise architecture questions when instead you are expecting .NET architecture questions!

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