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Home|Education|What Makes a Good Software Architect Great

A great architect doesn't just design solutions, draw diagrams, choose technologies, and hand it all over to a team to implement.

You may be familiar with the ivory-tower architect anti-pattern: detached residents who bestow their thoughts with slides and posters, whilst their quest for irrelevant ideals causes missed project timelines.

Gregor Hohpe addresses this in his book "The Software Architect Elevator", presenting dimensions for measuring an architect's value that can serve as a guide to any consultant.

1. Architects "connect the dots"

This isn't on a code level, nor just system level, but across organisational departments, functions, and capabilities. It's about looking for patterns and connecting the dots across these levels. Too often Enterprise Architects draw up large capability maps without mapping how these translate across levels. How can one implement something effectively without truly understanding where it fits in, and why?

2. Architects see trade-offs

One of my favourite interview questions is "what are the disadvantages of XYZ?". I seldom ask about benefits because those typically get all the airtime. If we focused only on advantages, shouldn't we use serverless everywhere?

The advantages of the latest technology are well known, but drawbacks are often nuanced and situational, revealed only through experience. Understand both sides of the coin—the trade-offs of each decision.

3. Architects look beyond products

Looking at what's on the product's "box" (features, pros and cons) is not enough. Hohpe’s book uses a nice metaphor: what's on the box is a map, and all maps have distortion when projecting 3D surfaces onto 2D.

Projecting features and trade-offs onto your IT landscape takes skill, foresight, and broad knowledge. Moreover, products and technologies are not the only factors in success, or even the most important. People and process are key. .NET or Java, Angular or React—that doesn't matter as much.

4. Architects articulate strategy

At the end of the day, often IT is just a means to an end for business. IT supports business strategy, and architects are pivotal in determining how IT achieves this. Part of that is communicating not only IT strategy, but business strategy, vision and mission across the tech levels and associated people and processes.

Effective communication across various audiences is a key skill, especially for consultants. Many presentations to executives miss the mark with too much detail and tech. Think about what the business wants to know, rather than what you want to say.

5. Architects fight complexity

IT and its projects are complex. The adage "simple is best" rings true, but if only it were that easy.

Fight against complexity and find simple solutions, or more accurately, decide where to house the complexity. It's about finding the right level of healthy governance whilst remaining pragmatic and productive. We can be tempted by the latest shiny technology said to make things simpler, but often this isn't the case. As professionals we must see the forest for the trees and advise what we've experienced to be the simple solution.

6. Architects deliver

You won't deliver tangible benefits to the business from your ivory tower. Business doesn't care about diagrams. You learn to navigate the IT landscape by being in the trenches with the team, discovering the world is not flat and feeling any burn your decisions induce.

How do architects do all of this?

It's in the name: "The Software Architect Elevator". Instead of decreeing from your ivory tower, navigate and work closely with all areas and people of an organisation. Connect the dots, articulate strategy to varied audiences, determine the trade-offs and deliver the simplest solution. Think of it as a client elevator, navigating across the business rather than operating from a detached skyscraper.

So, architects do a lot more than draw pretty architecture diagrams!

Your enthusiastic lift operator, Greg Schroder

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