Competencies of an
Architect
Miha Kralj
Architect
Microsoft
1
Architect responsibilities
Dispelling the illusion
2
What an Architect really does
it is not engineering after all…
The main activities of an Architect:
Think, analyze
Listen, talk, walk around
Design, brainstorm, explain
Assist project leader with work breakdown, schedule, risks
Present, meet, teach, discuss
Test, integrate
Write, consolidate, browse
Read, review
TGerrit Muller, “The Role and Task of the System Architect”,
http://www.gaudisite.nl/RoleSystemArchitectPaper.pdf/
3
Architecting process
What is there to do?
Process
System
Envisioning
Architecting
Architecture
Evolution
Goal
Brief overview
of process
Primary
outputs
4
Activities:
• Conduct industry, market,
customer and user analyses
• Create technology roadmaps
• Assess legal implications
• Envision new products
• Select, model and prototype
Activities:
• Gain sponsorship and buy-in
• Capture architectural
requirements
• Create architectural models
and evaluate alternatives
• Validate architecture against
requirements
Activities:
• Update architecture
documentation
• Update requirements
• Assess architecture against
requirements (impact
analysis)
• Restructure architecture
System Vision
Architecture
Updated Architecture
• system concept
• value proposition,
distinctive contribution
• models and descriptions
• prototypes
• architectural requirements
• architecture models
• component specifications
• architecture guidelines and
standards
• updated requirements
• impact analysis results
• revised architecture models
Competencies breakdown
What is needed?
5
The Magic Seven
Seven Measurable Competencies
Leadership
Organizational
Dynamics
Technology in Breadth
Communication
Strategy
Technology in Depth
Process and Tactics
6
Leadership
Ability to develop partnerships with stakeholders both inside
and outside the organization, mentor others, develop and form
strong teams, and achieve successful results.
Does not meet
Nearly meets
• Weak communication skills –
not considering needs across the
organization
• Technical lead, not a mentor
• Doesn’t manage the bad news
•Is not developing new
competencies, not leading
effectively
• Rarely develops effective
partnerships
• Blames others for issues that
arise – does not demonstrate
accountability or ownership
7
• Gets the job done most of the
time – sometimes fails
Meets
Exceeds
• Drives the business forward –
recognized for skill set across the
organization
• Grows people – completes the
project and provides growth or
mentoring opportunities for team
•Gets the job done – rock solid
performer, dependable
•Develops strong business
partnerships
•Develops partnerships across
the organization
•People want to follow –
is sought out by others
•Foresees and proactively
addresses issues
•Makes the team better than
the sum of its parts
Leadership
Sub-competencies
Ask thought-provoking questions that result in
actionable technological patterns or solutions
Actively mentor others
Provide thought leadership by enabling others to see
things from a different and better perspective
Influence decision makers
Champion structure, process, best practices, and
standards
Promote the capture and reuse of intellectual capital
Effectively build individual partnerships and
organizational networks
8
Leadership
Sample questions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
9
Tell me about a time when your team or management disagreed with an
architectural decision you made.
What steps are you taking to identify and/or grow your replacement?
How do you convey what architecture is to others?
How much of your time do you spend thinking about running your business vs.
changing your business?
What are your plans for the next 2-5 years?
Why are your team members or employees loyal to you?
Tell me about a time you lead the org away from a potential disaster to a
successful implementation? How?
How do you get other people to build and deploy the infrastructure/solutions you
architect?
How do you see the role of an architect in a team?
When things go wrong between team members – what do you do to resolve the
situation?
Communication
Maintain well-written and accurate project documentation,
and present information on a technical subject in a concise and
measured manner. Influence others, manage conflict
effectively, and tailor communication to the needs of the target
audience.
Does not meet
• Does not communicate
• Creates conflict
• Communicates inaccurate
information
Nearly meets
• Produces documentation of
minimal value to technical
stakeholders
• Can only communicate solution
to technical stakeholders
• Does not effectively tailor
communication to audience
10
Meets
Exceeds
• Ability to tailor communication
to audience
• Well written, concise and
accurate documentation that is
appropriately maintained
• Ability to effectively manage
conflicts
• Ability to be honest about the
ramifications of a technical
decision
• Engaging and concise
presentation skills
• Ability to influence – influencer
rather than a reporter
Communication
Sub-competencies
Effective listener and astute observer
Communicate effectively and persuasively to different
audiences (for example, executive or technical)
Effectively mediate and manage conflict
Document designs and specifications that adhere to
company practices
Communicate needs as well as deployment and
operations standards to infrastructure architects
Effectively facilitate meetings
Possess good presentation skills
11
Communication
Sample questions
• What standard methods do you use to depict your
•
•
•
•
architectures?
What documents are included in your
conceptual/logical/implementation designs?
Tell me about presentation where your audience was not
cooperating?
How would you talk to CIO/CTO/CEO/CFO?
I don’t understand – explain it better
•
12
Follow-up: initiate conflicting arguing and observe reactions
Leadership
Organizational
Dynamics
Technology in Breadth
Communication
Strategy
Technology in Depth
Process and Tactics
13
Organizational Dynamics
Recognize the key stakeholders on a project and work with
those stakeholders to drive the project to a successful
conclusion. Recognize the political landscape within an
organization that can influence a project, and in turn influence
organizational politics for the success of projects.
Does not meet
• Avoids politically charged
situations
•Cannot or does not identify the
stakeholders for the project
•Consistently falling prey to the
whims of the stakeholders –
not seeing the bigger picture
•Can’t map the solution to the
business case
14
Nearly meets
• Identifies but does not
effectively work with
stakeholders
Meets
• Works with key stakeholders
•Impactful because gets the
right stakeholders aligned
•Knows how to effectively pick
battles
Exceeds
• Recognizes key influencers and
works with those influencers
•Perceptive enough to anticipate
the changing political landscape
Organizational Dynamics
Sub-competencies
Understand organizational structures, relationships,
and influencers
Adeptly maneuver through politically-charged
organizational situations
Effectively build organizational partnerships and
networks
Build relationships with other architects and project
stakeholders
Possess an awareness of the internal legal organization
and ensure that legal guidelines are met
Exhibit comfort with conflict and thrive in situations
that require negotiation and compromise
15
Organizational Dynamics
Sample questions
•
•
•
•
16
How do you go about gaining alignment from various stakeholders in the
organization?
Describe a project that was partially complete and new stakeholder(s) were
added. What did you do?
Tell me about a successful failure?
How do you determine who you talk to when you enter a company or start a new
project?
Strategy
Apply knowledge of technology to further organizational goals
within the vertical industry. Understand the principles of
project management and interact with project managers to
complete projects successfully. In addition, understand the
economic dimension of projects and how costs influence the
available choices for technology.
Does not meet
Nearly meets
Meets
•Does not understand the impact
technology may have on the
business and tradeoffs that must
be made to meet the needs of
the business.
• Solutions only take into account
thinking about 6 months out –
not well beyond.
• Solution aligns with business
strategy in addition to technical
strategy.
•Understands competitive
advantage technology provides
for the organization, but does
not drive it.
•Aware of where business and
technology is going.
•Reactively instead of
proactively solving problems.
•Interacts with community and
customer on a participatory level.
•Drives the competitive
advantage that technology
provides for the organization.
Exceeds
•Able to extract requirements
from the business and understand
not only the technical, but
the business impact.
• Interacts frequently with
community and customer and
drives that interaction.
•Intimately aware how solution
will be executed.
•Ability to gain buy-in of solution.
•Long-term focus.
17
Strategy
Sub-competencies
18
Explain the business strategy of your organization
Demonstrate knowledge of industry-specific trends with respect to architecture
Balance the needs of users, management, operations, support, finance, and
technology with the strategic needs of the business, including business benefits and
vendor pricing implications
Demonstrate an understanding of future trends in technology and how they impact
the current and future state of your solution
Describe how you applied knowledge of industry ( HIPAA , Basel II, Sarbanes-Oxley,
HL7, etc.) regulations to create your solution
Use enterprise frameworks (for example, the Zachman Framework for Enterprise
Architecture or The Open Group Architecture Framework [TOGAF]) to map the
business strategy of the organization to your solution
Understand how operational frameworks (for example, Control Objectives for
Information and related Technology [COBIT], IT Infrastructure Library [ITIL], ITSM)
impact your solution
Understand how techniques for achieving operational excellence (for example, Lean
Six Sigma, Total Quality Management [TQM], or Capability Maturity Model [CMM])
impact your solution
Strategy
Sample questions
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
19
What part of your vision/solution did you fail to gain buy-in on? Tell me about a
scenario where you failed to gain buy in.
Follow-up: What would you do differently?
• Follow-up: What were the consequences and how did you deal with those
consequences?
How do you go about validating your strategy internally before you execute on
gaining buy-in?
What mechanisms do you have to share best practices? How do you evaluate best
practices?
How do you quantify or measure success?
What technology initiatives do you have in the next year?
What is your scope of influence in the organization?
Process and Tactics
Gather and refine project requirements from both a technical and
a business perspective. Design, create, maintain, and verify
models of the deployed infrastructure. Create effective project
artifacts. Exhibit the ability to refine project goals and the tactics
necessary to achieve those goals as the project develops.
Does not meet
Nearly meets
• Not willing (or unable to
recognize when it is necessary)
to change architecture.
• Designs architecture but fails to
document changes.
•Proposes architecture –
but no involvement in
implementation and its
evolution.
•Does not address opportunities
to change working architecture
as the situation changes.
Meets
• Effectively incorporates strategic
vision into tactics of technology
implementation.
•Ability to change architecture as
obstacles occur during
implementation.
•Keeps up to date with evolving
best practices and technology,
and can adjust architecture
appropriately.
•Aware of, presents, and explores
technical options.
20
•Able to compromise as
appropriate.
Exceeds
•Ability to predict when
technology change will occur and
can adjust/evolve architecture
appropriately.
Process and Tactics
Sub-competencies
Use methodologies and/or frameworks to provide predictability to IT and ensure
repeatable success on IT projects
Gather and analyze both technical and business requirements
Envision and create an solution that meets requirements and can be
implemented using modeling techniques and mapping their points of integration
Prove the feasibility of a design (POC, pilots, prototypes, etc.)
Use capacity planning techniques to ensure scalable designs
Create the design artifacts that are required to deliver and to maintain the
solution
Understand the impact of internal policies (for example, service level agreements
[SLAs])
Guide a project through to completion and audit compliance with specifications
and the overall intent of the architecture
Review the ongoing implementation for opportunities for improvement and
refine the model as requirements change, implementation choices evolve, etc.
Contribute to technical project management
21
Process and Tactics
Sample questions
•
•
•
•
22
What lifecycle process do you follow and why? What are the artifacts of the
process?
• Probe – are all artifacts complete for the solution? (e.g. is a test plan
documented?)
How do you measure success?
Walk me through a project – beginning to end. Recommend to use a hypothetical
situation.
What are you doing to mitigate risk?
Leadership
Organizational
Dynamics
Technology in Breadth
Communication
Strategy
Technology in Depth
Process and Tactics
23
Technology - breadth
Understand architectural best practices and apply them across a
breadth of technologies to solve an organizational problem. Articulate
views on the future development of technology, and understand the
interaction between infrastructure and solution architecture. Use
these insights to design appropriate architectural solutions.
Does not meet
Nearly meets
• Focused on a single-platform –
comfortable with single
technology only.
• Addresses functional goals of a
system, but may ignore
non-functional goals.
•Understands multiple
technologies but cannot bring
the technologies together –
cannot synthesize.
•Understands trend of where
technology is moving but not
understanding the technology
itself (uses buzz-words).
•Limited/selective understanding
of the technology.
•Does not thoroughly analyze
options if following policies of
organization vs. looking at other
potential technologies.
•Does not recognize existing
technology.
•Does not demonstrate the
responsibility to reuse existing
technology.
24
Meets
• Understands where technology
is moving and when is redundant.
•Understands some quality
properties in addition to
functional requirements.
•Understands how various
technologies fit together –
across the entire organization
•Synthesizes new information/
technology quickly.
•Consistently expanding technical
knowledge.
•Recognizes the value of
leveraging existing technology.
Exceeds
•Strong understanding of new
tools and technologies with a
defined process for implementing
within the organization.
•Understands where business is
going and impact it has on the
architectural solution and has a
plan for adaptation.
•Understands the impact of
decisions on quality properties in
addition to funct requirements
and can articulate that impact.
Also has an evaluative process
and/or documentation on decision
points w. trade-off considerations.
Technology - breadth
Sub-competencies
Apply architectural and engineering concepts to design a solution that
meets operational requirements, such as scalability, maintainability, security,
reliability, extensibility, flexibility, availability, and manageability
Think abstractly and demonstrate effective application of service-based,
object-based, and component-based modeling
Effectively adapt solutions to the capabilities and constraints of the
infrastructure
Demonstrate a range of software development skills, such as:
data access and transactions
factoring and refactoring
tiers and layers
application of patterns
Integration strategies
Have a broad architectural knowledge of several technology areas and be
able to compare and contrast multiple vendor offering in those areas
Learn new concepts and gain expertise quickly
25
Technology - breadth
Sample questions
•
•
•
What frameworks did you consider when architecting your solution and what
criteria did you use?
What approach did you use to elicit quality requirements?
How do you analyze the relationship between architecture and quality properties?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
26
Follow up questions: tradeoffs
How do you ensure quality in your design?
When considering technology for a solution how do you treat redundancy among
technologies?
What did you consider when designing your solution to ensure it is maintainable and
upgradeable?
Last 2 or 3 books you’ve read on the industry?
What are the 2 or 3 magazines or websites you follow?
What trends do you see that will significantly impact the solutions you design in the
near future? Or what keeps you jazzed about the future?
What standards does your organization use for architecture – frameworks, packages,
software development?
What process is used to introduce new standards in the organization?
Technology - depth
Demonstrate detailed knowledge of the concepts, application,
and issues of at least two depth competencies. Also
demonstrate the ability to quickly assimilate information about
new technologies.
Does not meet
• Unable to demonstrate
technology expertise.
Nearly meets
Meets
Exceeds
•Strong expertise in one area of
technology and how the
technology fits into architecture,
but struggles outside of that one
area.
• Demonstrable and sustained
expertise of two or more areas
of technology and how the
technology fits into architecture.
• Demonstrable, sustained
expertise and mastery of three or
more areas of technology and
how the technology fits into
architecture.
•Understands the value of the
technology and its impact on the
business.
•Achieves industry
acknowledgment as a published
author, conference speaker or
holds patents for an area of
technology.
•Able to learn a new technology
quickly.
27
Technology - depth
Sub-competencies
Examples of depth competencies include, but are not
limited to, the following:
Component and solution modeling
Solutions frameworks (for example, the Microsoft .NET
Framework and Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition [JEE])
Integration , as evidenced by knowledge of traditional
enterprise application integration (EAI) products such as
Microsoft BizTalk Server, IBM WebSphere, or BEA WebLogic
User experience, including smart clients and adaptive UI
Data structuring and management
28
Technology - depth
Sample questions
•
•
•
29
What are the benefits of the architecture you selected? Why did you decide to use
it?
• Follow-up: What challenges did you face when implementing it?
• Follow-up: What alternative technologies did you consider?
• Follow-up: How did you sell your solution to the infrastructure
support/software development staff?
• Follow-up: How did you explain your solution to various levels of the
organization?
What are instances where you had to back away from using your architectural
solution in the design or roll out?
If you had the opportunity to re-design the solution, how would you go about it?
Level of Competency
Various roles in the Enterprise
Leadership
Communications
Strategy
Tactical / Process
Organizational Dynamics
CIO
30
Enterprise Architect
Technology Breadth
Technology Depth
Solution/Infrastructure/Information/Business Architect
Conclusion
Common competencies of Architects
Leadership
Organizational
Dynamics
Technology in Breadth
Communication
Strategy
Technology in Depth
Process and Tactics
31
Your Next Steps
As an aspiring architect, you should…
Tomorrow
Network with other architects on TechEd
Re-validate if your development path leads towards an
architect or engineer
Near Future
Set your career goals and define the roadmap to achieve
them
Start building the right competencies required
Longer Term
Participate in defining and establishing IT Architecture as a
separate profession
32