architect roles

A Cloudy Conversation with My Mum

Peter Cripps architecture ,

Traditionally (and I’m being careful not to over-generalise here) parents of the Baby Boomer generation are not as tech savvy as the Boomers (age 50 – 60), Gen X’ers (35 – 49) and certainly Millenials (21 – 34). This being the generation that grew up with “the wireless”, corded telephones (with a rotary dial) and black and white televisions with diminutive screens. Technology however is invading more and more on their lives as ‘webs’, ‘tablets’ and ‘clouds’ encroach into what they read and hear.

IT, like any profession, is guilty of creating it’s own language, supposedly to help those in the know understand what each other are talking about in a short hand form but often at the expense of confusing the hell out of those on the outside. As hinted at above IT is worse than most other professions because rather than create new words it seems particularly good at hijacking existing ones and then changing their meaning completely!

‘The Cloud’ is one of the more recent terms to jump from mainstream into IT and is now making its way back into mainstream with its new meaning. This being the case I thought the following imaginary conversation between myself and my mum (a Boomer parent) given my recent new job* might be fun to envisage. Here’s how it might start…

Cloud Architect and Mum

Here’s how it might carry on…

Me: “Ha, ha very funny mum but seriously, that is what I’m doing now”.

Mum: “Alright then dear what does a ‘Cloud Architect’ do?”

Me: “Well ‘cloud computing’ is what people are talking about now for how they use computers and can get access to programs. Rather than companies having to buy lots of expensive computers for their business they can get what they need, when they need it from the cloud. It’s meant to be cheaper and more flexible.”

Mum: “Hmmm, but why is it called ‘the cloud’ and I still don’t understand what you are doing with it?”

Me: “Not sure where the name came from to be honest mum, I guess it’s because the computers are now out there and all around us, just like clouds are”. At this point I look out of the window and see a clear blue sky without a cloud in sight but quickly carry on. “People compare it with how you get your electricity and water – you just flick a switch or turn on the tap and its there, ready and waiting for when you want to use it.”

Mum: “Yes I need to talk to you about my electricity, I had a nice man on the phone the other day telling me I was probably paying too much for that, now where did I put that bill I was going to show you…”

Me: “Don’t worry mum, I can check that on the Internet, I can find out if there are any better deals for you.”

Mum: “So will you do that using one of these clouds?”

Me “Well the company that I contact to do the check for you might well be using computers and programs that are in the cloud yes. It would mean they don’t have to buy and maintain lots of expensive computers themselves but let someone else deal with that.”

Mum: “Well it all sounds a bit complicated to me dear and anyway, you still haven’t told me what you are doing now?”

Me: “Oh yes. Well I’m supposed to be helping people work out how they can make use of cloud computing and helping them move the computers they might have in their own offices today to make use of ones IBM have in the cloud. It’s meant to help them save money and do things a bit quicker.”

Mum: “I don’t know why everyone is in such a rush these days – people should slow down a bit, walk not run everywhere.”

Me: “Yes, you’re probably right about that mum but anyway have a look at this. It’s a video some of my colleagues from IBM made and it explains what cloud computing is.”

Mum: “Alright dear, but it won’t be on long will it – I want to watch Countdown in a minute.”

*IBM has gone through another of its tectonic shifts of late creating a number of new business units as well as job roles, including that of ‘Cloud Architect’.

The Three C’s of IT Architects

Peter Cripps architecture, creativity

This is a completely unscientific observation but over the years of being an architect I have observed the following characteristics in people that claim to be members of this profession.  I refer to these as the three C’s of being an IT architect. Some people have only one of these but most have a mix of all three, with maybe one being dominant. The three C’s are: 

  • Creatives – These are the ideas people, that are keen to do new stuff. They are the people that build the solutions that address the business requirements. They have an intimate knowledge of technology (in their particular area of interest or concern) and want to use that technology. If you don’t have these people in your project/team/organisation then nothing will actually get done. The downside of having too much of this attribute is that eventually you have to stop creating and ship something so you need to know when to stop. 
  • Consumers – These are the people that use what the creatives create. Whilst they may not create anything new this type of architect is not without merit. They often combine what others have done in new and innovative ways. We sometimes refer to this activity as reuse, one of the Holy Grails of IT so it is not to be underestimated. If you don’t have these people in your project/team/organisation then chances are the ideas from the creatives will not get fully realised. The downside of having too much of this attribute is that there is a limit to what you can build out of reusing stuff and eventually someone has to come up with some new ideas. 
  • Connectors – These are the people that don’t create or reuse but know people that can do these things and join the two together. Again this is not to be an underestimated skill. After all if a seller cannot find a buyer what’s the point! If you don’t have these people in your project/team/organisation then the two previous types won’t find each other. The downside of having too much of this attribute is that you ain’t going to do anything if all you do is push ideas of others around without creating or reusing things.

From my observations I reckon a ratio of Creatives to Consumers to Connectors needs to be something like 4:2:1.

Incidentally, my guess is that these actually apply to other professions as well but I have even less scientific evidence about those.

Working with Zuck

Peter Cripps comment ,

In this article Facebook software engineer Andrew Bosworth describes what its like to work with the founder and architect of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg (‘Zuck’). The attributes that Bosworth ascribes to Zuckerberg, that by implication are at least partly the reasons for his galactic success, are ones which I believe all architects should aspire to. Here are the four attributes with my spin on how I think they apply to architects in general:

  1. Zuck expects debate. A good architect is not a dictator but should expect, and be happy to participate in, debate. Be open to new ideas and don’t think you have all the answers. At the same time be robust in pushing back on any ideas to test out peoples thinking thoroughly. Be aware of people who play Devil’s Advocate and who argue just to be heard or are negative without proposing viable, alternative solutions.
  2. Zuck isn’t sentimental. It’s sometimes easy to be too wedded to an idea or your favourite technology. Be prepared to scrap these and to throw things away if they no longer meet the requirements or something better has come along. As Bosworth says of Zuckerman he is “fearless about disrupting the status quo and tireless in his pursuit of building the right thing, even in an ever-changing landscape”.
  3. Zuck experiences things contextually. As architects we often talk about ideas very abstractly and prefer to talk in generalities rather than specifics. Bad idea! A good architect (and indeed architecture) should be firmly grounded in reality and be backed up by actual products, prototypes, even working code! The best way of convincing someone of your idea is to build something that you can give them to play with.
  4. Zuck pushes people. People can often do more than they think (sometimes in less time than they think as well). The important thing is to be focussed on the problem and not the distractions that your job (as opposed to your work) may bring.

Architect Roles

Peter Cripps architecture ,

The IT industry tends to bandy around a number of different architect roles. Working with different clients, as I do, I find there is often confusion about what all these roles do. I find the following diagram helps to explain the different roles that IT architects take. Of course the important point to emphasise is that these are roles not job titles. In other words, one person may take on multiple roles on any given project so this is not meant to be a a way of generating architecture jobs but is merely a way of showing the different skill areas or disciplines that need to be applied when building a solution that is comprised of multiple layers.