The Role of an Architect

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Objectives

So you wanna be an architect...

Examination of the Problem

An architect is someone who ...

Architecture

A definition

Definition

ar·chi·tec·ture

"áarki tèkchər", noun

    building design: the art and science of designing and constructing buildings

    building style: a style or fashion of building, especially one that is typical of a period of history or of a particular place

    structure of computer system: the design, structure, and behavior of a computer system, microprocessor, or system program, including the characteristics of individual components and how they interact

Answer

What do we expect of a "good" architecture?

"--ities": Integrity, Simplicity, Reliability, Extensibility, Maintainability, Modularity, Recoverability, Composability, Parsimony, Scalability, Security, Performability, Longevity

Answer

What do we expect of a "good" architecture?

Make it easy for developers to make "right" decisions

Answer

In other words, a (software) architecture is just a set of answers to questions that developers will ask every day

Architecture is Strategy

Yes, the same thing that business types talk about

Strategy

"The core of strategy work is always the same: discovering the critical factors in a situation and designing a way of coordinating and focusing actions to deal with those factors. ... A good strategy honestly acknowledges the challenges being faced and provides an approach to overcoming them. ... bad strategy covers up its failure to guide by embracing the language of broad goals, ambition, vision, and values."

Strategy

In the business world, strategy is made up of:

Strategy

Strategy to architecture

Strategy

What makes up a good strategy/architecture?

Architecture: Simple Rules

"Simple Rules", by Donald Sull, Kathleen M. Eisenhardt

Simple Rules

What are "simple rules"?

Simple Rules

Simple rules are...

Simple Rules

Simple rules are...

What is an architect?

(of the software kind, anyway)

Architects

Architects ...

Architects

This doesn't sound like a guy who draws up plans in his office, alone...

Perhaps...

... we need a new metaphor?

Architects

Instead of thinking of architecting software like architecting buildings, what if we think of developing software like ...

... an orchestra?

... and the architect is thus... a conductor?

Architects

Why do we need this guy, exactly? ("Isn't the orchestra doing all the work?")

A conductor ...

Architects

Sometimes the band is small enough ...

... you don't need a guy at the front waving a stick

... and that's OK, because his responsibilities are shared across the rest of the members of the band, in an intuitive or explicit fashion

Architects

The architect's role can also be seen as a parallel to that of a movie or stage director

Questions about architects

Yes or no?

FAQs

Should the architect be a developer?

FAQs

Should the architect be the enforcer of standards?

FAQs

Should the architect be the team lead?

Alternatively, should the team lead be the architect?

FAQs

Are architects responsible for requirements?

Summary

Wrapping up

Summary

What is architecture?

What is an architect?