The presentation by Mark Dickinson explores the evolving role of architects in modern IT projects, highlighting the confusion surrounding the term and the varied perceptions of architects' function. It emphasizes that architects should foster collaboration and governance while avoiding gatekeeping and inefficiencies in project timelines. The document suggests that architects integrate with teams to facilitate change and improve system management within organizations.

1. Where do architects fit?
In modern IT Projects
Presentation by: Mark Dickinson
https://www.linkedin.com/in/mjdickinson/

2. Why ask the question?
● Architecture is a very commonly used word in IT
● People are keen to use the A word
● How many people know what it actually involves?
● How many people view architects with suspicion?

3. Modern IT Projects?

4. Modern IT Projects?
● Yes, I deliberately avoided Agile
● Collaborative and Pragmatic
● Software design has been compared to (civil) architecture
since the 60’s
● Software Architecture, as a term, only became prevalent in
the 90’s
● In nearly 30 years, a lot of things change

5. Why question the role?
● Lots of people will claim to be architects
● Management
● UX
● Thinkers
● Really good developers

6. Why question where it fits?
● Delivery at pace
● Agile
● Thinking
● U People
● Ivory Tower

7. The truth about architects

8. The truth about architects
● Everyone is an architect
● Everyone will have an opinion
● Right up to the CEO
● Enlightened organisations cycle round
● Good feedback loops make it easier to see
where architects fit

9. What is an architect supposed to do?
● Make it safe to experience something that will be built
● Make it beneficial to experience that thing
● Make it enjoyable to use that thing
● Make it fit or contrast with its environment

10. What is an architect NOT supposed to do?
● Stop people getting what they want
● Forcing people to work in certain ways
● Bring late concerns which derail project timelines
● Pick on details which add no value

11. ● You’re supposed
to be wise
● You’re not
supposed to be a
gatekeeper

12. Growing into the role

13. A common route into architecture
● Developer
○ Learning from mistakes
○ Finding better ways of building things
● Tech lead
○ Dealing with bad design
○ Dealing with bad requirements

14. Another route into architecture
● Testing
● Poor test coverage
● Brittle tests
● Tests are the mould your solution is cast in
● Testers and QAs are natural allies

15. Being an architect

16. Get the right job
● Broad range of opportunities
● Be selective
● Recognise your own strengths
● Recognise smells
● Ask lots of questions

17. Test yourself
● Do you line up?
● Do you have something the organisation lacks?
● Are they genuinely interested?
● Are you pragmatic enough?
● Will your work stick?

18. First 100 days
● Get some clear goals
● Get down with the teams
● Stay out of the weeds
● Cycle round the team and management
● Move the needle

19. What’s so hard about that?

20. Frictions
● Teams that try to hide
● Hero culture
● Whispering
● Incumbents
● Help me to win

21. So where do architects fit?

22. Domains and ecosystem
● Many architecture domains
● Create a healthy ecosystem
● Boundaries
● Protocols
● Ensure nothing is leaking

23. Getting this to
function usefully in
an organisation can
be a rocky road.

24. Here’s where architects fit
● With teams with something new to do
● With teams who need to change existing systems
● With service organisations who need to manage assets
● With a business who wants to move at a different pace
● With complex organisations who want to make sense of
their systems and what they could do with them

25. Embrace these considerations
● Architecture is a governance function
● Architects shouldn’t become gatekeepers
● Good architects enable ground-up governance
● Having good architects speeds production
● Architects can show ROI in their work
● Architects are just people

26. Thank YouThank You
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27. Photo Credits
Owls Photo by Paulo Cesar Rodrigues on Unsplash
Rocky road photo by Mark Dickinson