What is an architect for?
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I see a lot of jobs for 'architects', but this role doesn't fit in with my beliefs. A lot of modern practices eg. Scrum encourage self organizing teams rather than having a leader. I believe teams can work better without an architect. It seems that an 'architect' or 'lead' would be the next step in my career, but I don't think this is the right title for what I want to do. I think all/most developers should do some architecture design and I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person. What do people think? What should an architect do?
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I see a lot of jobs for 'architects', but this role doesn't fit in with my beliefs. A lot of modern practices eg. Scrum encourage self organizing teams rather than having a leader. I believe teams can work better without an architect. It seems that an 'architect' or 'lead' would be the next step in my career, but I don't think this is the right title for what I want to do. I think all/most developers should do some architecture design and I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person. What do people think? What should an architect do?
Member 4487083 wrote:
What should an architect do?
Use design patterns (if you believe the Gang of Four)! :laugh:
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I see a lot of jobs for 'architects', but this role doesn't fit in with my beliefs. A lot of modern practices eg. Scrum encourage self organizing teams rather than having a leader. I believe teams can work better without an architect. It seems that an 'architect' or 'lead' would be the next step in my career, but I don't think this is the right title for what I want to do. I think all/most developers should do some architecture design and I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person. What do people think? What should an architect do?
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Member 4487083 wrote:
What should an architect do?
Whatever he or she is told; most likely design a system, which the programmers then turn into code. Much the same as a biuilding architect.
Richard MacCutchan wrote:
design a system, which the programmers then turn into code
What are senior developers for then? Their knowledge would be wasted if they're just doing what they are told. It's the developers that will be using the architecture so I think it makes sense for all developers to have some input.
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Richard MacCutchan wrote:
design a system, which the programmers then turn into code
What are senior developers for then? Their knowledge would be wasted if they're just doing what they are told. It's the developers that will be using the architecture so I think it makes sense for all developers to have some input.
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I see a lot of jobs for 'architects', but this role doesn't fit in with my beliefs. A lot of modern practices eg. Scrum encourage self organizing teams rather than having a leader. I believe teams can work better without an architect. It seems that an 'architect' or 'lead' would be the next step in my career, but I don't think this is the right title for what I want to do. I think all/most developers should do some architecture design and I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person. What do people think? What should an architect do?
Member 4487083 wrote:
I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person.
What is considered an 'architect' may vary from company to company, but it does not seem to be a god role. And yes, as a seasoned developer I had to build quite some applications without the help of an architect. Ever seen anyone work on a whiteboard, throwing patterns around like they are lego-bricks, explaining to a group of developers the implications of each approach? Half an hour further, the blocks on the whiteboard are work-items, we got to work.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Member 4487083 wrote:
I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person.
What is considered an 'architect' may vary from company to company, but it does not seem to be a god role. And yes, as a seasoned developer I had to build quite some applications without the help of an architect. Ever seen anyone work on a whiteboard, throwing patterns around like they are lego-bricks, explaining to a group of developers the implications of each approach? Half an hour further, the blocks on the whiteboard are work-items, we got to work.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
Eddy Vluggen wrote:
Ever seen anyone work on a whiteboard, throwing patterns around like they are lego-bricks, explaining to a group of developers the implications of each approach? Half an hour further, the blocks on the whiteboard are work-items, we got to work.
No, I haven't seen it. I've never seen an architect capable of that, although I know a few developers who would be. An architect is ultimately just another developer with a different title. In my current team, I think there are a number of good developers who would have good input on what kind of design/patterns to use. On their own, I don't think any single developer on my team would come up with the best solution. Some of the developers on my team are far better than any architect I have seen.
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I see a lot of jobs for 'architects', but this role doesn't fit in with my beliefs. A lot of modern practices eg. Scrum encourage self organizing teams rather than having a leader. I believe teams can work better without an architect. It seems that an 'architect' or 'lead' would be the next step in my career, but I don't think this is the right title for what I want to do. I think all/most developers should do some architecture design and I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person. What do people think? What should an architect do?
As has been pointed out Architect is a different animal depending on your perspective. An architect in a major corporate may be the guy who puts together the core design for a system and never codes (almost certainly did code at some time). In a smaller corporate he may be what you consider a Senior Developer, I call myself a developer architect because I refuse to let go of the coding aspect and am not interested in just putting together solutions for someone else to code.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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Eddy Vluggen wrote:
Ever seen anyone work on a whiteboard, throwing patterns around like they are lego-bricks, explaining to a group of developers the implications of each approach? Half an hour further, the blocks on the whiteboard are work-items, we got to work.
No, I haven't seen it. I've never seen an architect capable of that, although I know a few developers who would be. An architect is ultimately just another developer with a different title. In my current team, I think there are a number of good developers who would have good input on what kind of design/patterns to use. On their own, I don't think any single developer on my team would come up with the best solution. Some of the developers on my team are far better than any architect I have seen.
Member 4487083 wrote:
I've never seen an architect capable of that
Then why does he hold the title?
Member 4487083 wrote:
although I know a few developers who would be.
The architects at our company are developers. How could one talk about software-architecture if one has no idea how it is built? Being a damned good developer is a prerequisite.
Member 4487083 wrote:
I think there are a number of good developers who would have good input on what kind of design/patterns to use
If you have four and they disagree, things get interesting. Put the architects you meet in a room with that kind of devs and shout that the flame-wars have begun.
Member 4487083 wrote:
Some of the developers on my team are far better than any architect I have seen
That may be, but it sounds like you want to generalize your experience to every architect. Not all dogs bite.
Bastard Programmer from Hell :suss: If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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I see a lot of jobs for 'architects', but this role doesn't fit in with my beliefs. A lot of modern practices eg. Scrum encourage self organizing teams rather than having a leader. I believe teams can work better without an architect. It seems that an 'architect' or 'lead' would be the next step in my career, but I don't think this is the right title for what I want to do. I think all/most developers should do some architecture design and I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person. What do people think? What should an architect do?
If you think of a software architect in terms of a building architect then you're on the right road. An architect designs the overall system, including interfaces to internal / external systems, the flow of data, the key systems / users etc. They employ top down design and map out the key processes. If you think of the person who designs the overall system topology in an enterprise SOA system, then that's the architect. An architect is NOT the lead developer, they are NOT the project manager and they are NOT the scrum-master.
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I see a lot of jobs for 'architects', but this role doesn't fit in with my beliefs. A lot of modern practices eg. Scrum encourage self organizing teams rather than having a leader. I believe teams can work better without an architect. It seems that an 'architect' or 'lead' would be the next step in my career, but I don't think this is the right title for what I want to do. I think all/most developers should do some architecture design and I think a 'god' role would be too much for one person. What do people think? What should an architect do?
Excellent info here, I am currently doing some research and found exactly what I was looing for. jenifer lopez
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Member 4487083 wrote:
What should an architect do?
Use design patterns (if you believe the Gang of Four)! :laugh:
to make project like building etc.