During a recent tech workshop, Phil challenged some of us to think about our roles from a different perspective; to give our “job descriptions” a bit of a different spin — focusing on job expectations. One of these exercises was to finish the thought, “I am a …”.  I see a lot of job candidates with Architect titles on their resumes with a huge variety of skill sets and experience.  Looking beyond technical skills and trying to distill the qualities of an Architect was certainly an interesting exercise.

Here is my take on the expectations of an Architect:

I am an Architect

• I am a strategic business partner, creating value through technology.
• I clearly understand the “why”; I create the context and articulate the need to our delivery teams.
• I enable my business partners to discover new possibilities through technology.
• I lead by example.
• I can visualize a solution before it exists.
• I guide the design of high quality solutions, striking a practical balance between value and risk.
• I am persuasive; I direct, not dictate.
• I focus choice without limiting solutions.
• I reduce complex problems into manageable pieces, define their interactions and communicate these concepts to all.
• I respect the expertise of designers and engineers with more in-depth knowledge of their discipline.
• I own my solutions at every level – from concept to production, software to hardware, cradle to grave.
• I actively cultivate my partnerships with our Business, Quality, Project Management and Technology leadership.
• I create principals and practices that advance business goals rather than place arbitrary restrictions.
• I consider every problem an opportunity to learn something new.
• I understand what’s at stake.
• I know that if I don’t, maybe nobody will.

I am an Architect and above all, I am relentless in my drive for continuous improvement.

Finally, what differentiates an architect on a smaller team from an enterprise architect or from a Chief Architect?  I found an interesting paper - Role of the Chief Architect – that suggests there are many dimensions, but organizational scope could be the primary factor.