What's An Architect?
June 11, 2007 - 3:20pm — bexI've been reading several blog posts lately about what the heck an "enterprise architect" (EA) actually is. I've never called myself one, because I hate that word enterprise -- far too ambiguous. Its like synergy or paradigm. Its a shortcut to thinking, and I hate it.
Well, some folks like James McGovern claim that an EA should have a technical background... whereas other consider that less important than presentation skills, and understanding change management. Others claim you don't deserve the title unless you know every buzzword and framework that Microsoft uses.
Finally, Michael Kavis said enough is enough, why don't we define what an enterprise architect is before we rant about people not doing it correctly? Great idea!
I liked his overall take... there should be Solution Architects, Infrastructure Architects, and finally Enterprise Architects. The Solution Architects should be HIGHLY technical, and understand how software fits together... its probably less important to know strict change management protocols outside release engineering. The Infrastructure Architects can be less technical, but must still understand security and how to set up a stable network. I'm with him thus far, but I'd add that the infrastructure team needs to know more about change management -- since everything relies on the infrastructure, you need to be cautious.
Kavis then seems to say the ideal Enterprise Architect would be a combination of the two, plus some extra business savvy, and a comprehension of IT governance. It is essential for an EA to have a highly technical background. Not that an EA should focus on writing code... but they should have a very clear understanding of how difficult it will be to bring a vision into reality.
They should not be focused on development, but on the strategic goal of turning the project vision into reality... which means communicating clearly with all stakeholders, understanding their needs, and prevent IT from rolling out some clunky, over-engineered monstrosity.
EA's need to have a firm grasp of business, process, software development, infrastructure, communication, and change management. Of course, this may mean that there is a very short list of people who deserve to call themselves Enterprise Architects... but I'm fine with that.
I just don't think anybody deserves to call themselves an architect unless they have actually built something.
So, what your saying is...
"EA's need to have a firm grasp of business, process, software development, infrastructure, communication, and change management."...whats left for the project managers! :-)
heh...
Damn good point... maybe we need another title: Enterprise Project Managers
That might be the disconnect that people keep arguing about. Some people who call themselves Enterprise Architects (EA) should perhaps call themselves Enterprise Project Managers (EPM). The EPMs don't need nearly the same tech savvy... whereas the EAs probably shouldn't spend all their time managing a team and necessary resources.
They both need to know communication, change management, and business 101, but they have separate focuses.
You could probably get by with a EPM and a normal architect, or an EA and a normal project manager... but asking one person to fulfill both roles might be asking for trouble on large projects...
Formal professional definition
Bex,
You are indeed on the right track in defining architecture roles with more rigor. In fact if architecture is a profession the common roles must be formalized to the point where there are no questions about the skills and capabilities of the specializations. For example an optomologist is always an optomologist. No one questions what they do. At the IASA (IT architects association) we have completely formalized the professional roles and how they relate to each other. This project was done with over a 100 architects from different backgrounds and with over 10 years experience. Check out http://www.iasahome.org/web/home/skillset.
EA is an interesting subsection of the profession. In fact we have yet to identify any specific EA skill that isnt found already in one of the specializations (software, business, infrastructure).
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