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What Do Architects Do Anyway?
Ron Jacobs
Architect Evangelist - Microsoft
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What is the role of an architect?
What is software architecture?
Do I want to become an architect?
Architecture as a profession
New York City – 1857Thirteen powerful men—friends of presidents, capitalists, intellectuals, and architects—emerged from horse-drawn carriages to gather together with a singular purpose: to elevate the practice of architecture to a profession in its own right.
The Software Architect’s ProfessionMarc & Laura Sewell
The role of the architect
Explorer
Designer
Advocate
The role of the architect
Explorer
Designer
Advocate
Explorer
In the 15th century Europe had a business problem. The silk road which had served as an overland trade route for thousands of years had disintegrated along with the Mongol empire and now business was interrupted
Marco Polo at court of Kublai Khan c.1280
Explorer
“Everything exquisite and admirable comes from the East Indies… Learned people have remarked that in the whole world there is no commerce comparable to that of China”
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz17th Century
Explorer
Spain, only recently unified through the marriage of Ferdinand and Isabella was desperate for a competitive edge over other European countries, in trade with the East Indies. Columbus promised them that edge.
Isabella I, queen of Castile 1451-1504
Explorer
Columbus estimated the distance from the Canary Islands to Japan as just 2400 nautical miles when it is actually 10,600 nautical miles
“and furthermore directed that I should not proceed by land to the East, as is customary, but by a Westerly route, in which direction we have hitherto no certain evidence that anyone has gone.”
Entry from the journal of Christopher Columbus on his voyage of 1492
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Although Columbus died believing he had opened up a direct Although Columbus died believing he had opened up a direct nautical route to Asia, in fact, he established a nautical route nautical route to Asia, in fact, he established a nautical route between Europe and the Americas. It was this route to the between Europe and the Americas. It was this route to the Americas, rather than to Japan, that gave Spain the competitive Americas, rather than to Japan, that gave Spain the competitive edge it sought in developing a mercantile empire.edge it sought in developing a mercantile empire.
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Architect as Explorer
Architects must be able to help business find technology solutions to pressing business problems.
As an explorer your role is to help the business consider how to apply new and innovative technology solutions for competitive advantage
Vasco da Gama
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Architect as Explorer
Explorers are visionary
Explorers are persuasive
Explorers are accountable
Vasco da Gama
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Visionary
What are the top 3 new technology trends that will impact your organization in the next 2 years?
How could these trends be used as a competitive advantage for your organization?
Vasco da Gama
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Persuasion
What are the pros / cons of exploring these emerging trends?
What type of exploratory project could you propose to test the waters?
Vasco da Gama
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Accountable
What are your projections for benefit to the organization?
What evidence or metrics could you produce to demonstrate that the exploration was a success?
Vasco da Gama
Architect as ExplorerArchitect as ExplorerTopanga Canyon, Topanga Canyon, MalibuMalibu
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The role of the architect
Explorer
Designer
Advocate
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Advocate
ad·vo·cate [ ádvə kàyt ]
1. somebody giving support: somebody who supports or speaks in favor of something
2. helper: somebody who acts or intercedes on behalf of another
3. law legal representative: somebody such as a lawyer, who pleads another's case in a legal forum
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Advocate
Alan Dershowitz
• At the age of 28 he became the youngest full professor in Harvard law school history
Successfully defended high profile clients
• O.J. Simpson
• Claus von Bülow
Advocate
March 16, 1982 Claus von Bülow pronounced guilty on 2 counts of attempted murder of his estranged wife Sunny.
Sunny von Auersberg
Claus von Bulow
Advocate
“I can’t be both your friend and always be straight with you. I can be your lawyer ... and I will always be straight with you. A lawyer has to be brutally honest.”
“Believing in the innocence of my client is not a relevant factor in deciding which cases to take”
Sunny von Auersberg
Claus von Bulow
Advocate
Scotland Yard found that washings containing a combination of Amobarbital and Valium but no insulin can result in false positive results for insulin tests.
Blind Experiment Test Results• 4 Samples• 2 false positives for Insulin• 1 Accurate positive for Valium
June 15, 1985 – Conviction is reversed on appeal
Sunny von Auersberg
Claus von Bulow
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Architect as Advocate
“The sole duty of an architect is to serve the public, to meet and surpass, if possible, a client's needs.”
Defining Architecture - Brian Nank
George FogelmanGeorge FogelmanAttorney At LawAttorney At Law
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Architect as Advocate
Advocates must listen
Advocates must observe
Advocates must think strategically
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Art of Listening
“The architect’s design cannot meet the client’s expectations if the architect cannot hear the client and enter his or her domain.”
The Software Architect’s ProfessionMarc & Laura Sewell
Listen to:- Customers- Partners- Users- Managers- Developers
Understand:- Resources- Needs- Unique Challenges- Preferences- Business Climate
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Art of Observing
“One architect hired to design software to track and control a large manufacturer’s assets actually followed a piece of equipment through its entire life cycle, asking questions of all who came into contact with it.”The Software Architect’s ProfessionMarc & Laura Sewell
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Failure to Observe
• 1981 – FAA begins work on the Advanced Automation System – next generation air traffic control
• 1994 – The project is cancelled after massive delays and poorly designed systems
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Failure to Observe
“Instead of being able to turn a knob by touch to create an airplane's vector line the controller would have to enter 16 keystrokes.”
The Software Architect’s ProfessionMarc & Laura Sewell
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Failure to Observe
“The architect must “design by walking around”… If the trained eye of an architect had fallen upon an actual workstation of an ATC it would have been clear… the design was impossible to implement.”The Software Architect’s ProfessionMarc & Laura Sewell
Art of Strategy
How can the design be used to advance the client’s business?
How could the architecture transform the enterprise?
How could the software transform the users work?
August 10, 1628
Swedish Warship VasaSinks killing 55 people
Architect Henrik HybertssonDesigned the ship but died in The spring of 1627
The role of the architect
Explorer
Designer
Advocate
Designer
Believed that humanity should be central to all design
Practiced what is known as organic architecture, an architecture that evolves naturally out of the context, most importantly for him the relationship between the site and the building and the needs of the client
Frank Lloyd Wright
“A doctor can bury mistakes, an architect can only advise their client to plant vines.”
Designer
“A structure must exhibit the three qualities of firmitas (strength), utilitas (utility), venustas (beauty)”
Vitruvius 25 B.C.
Frank Lloyd Wright
“An architect's most useful tools are an eraser at the drafting board, and a wrecking bar at the site.”
Designer
Designers must understand engineering (strength)
Designers must be able to translate user needs into functional structures (utility)
Designers must be able to create a solution that is pleasing to the eye (beauty)
Frank Lloyd Wright
Architecture
The product of design
Architecture
ar·chi·tec·ture [áarki tèkchər]
noun
1.building design: the art and science of designing and constructing buildings
2.building style: a style or fashion of building, especially one that is typical of a period of history or of a particular place
3.structure of computer system: the design, structure, and behavior of a computer system, microprocessor, or system program, including the characteristics of individual components and how they interact
network architecture
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Architecture is an Architecture is an idea, a plan about idea, a plan about what the solution what the solution that will be built.that will be built.
To collaborate To collaborate effectively you will need effectively you will need to communicate the to communicate the architecture to different architecture to different audiences using a audiences using a variety of tools, media variety of tools, media and means.and means.
Your job is to Your job is to create an create an architecture that architecture that will meet the will meet the needneed
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What problem are we solving?What problem are we solving?
What are the practical limits of What are the practical limits of the solution?the solution?
How good does the solution How good does the solution need to be?need to be?
What resources do we have to What resources do we have to build the solution?build the solution?
Solve the right problem
Requirements are the way we define the problem we are trying to solve.
“Houston, we’ve got a problem” The Apollo 13 Service Module after it was released from the Command Module and set adrift in space
To get Apollo 13 home would require a lot of innovation… I certainly agree that without the splendid people in Mission Control, and their backups, we'd still be up there. - Commander Jim Lovell
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Practical limits
Constraints limit the solution in some practical ways. These limits include time, money, technology, legacy systems etc.
“The Lunar Module was designed to support two men for two days. Now it was being asked to care for three men nearly four days.”
- Commander Jim Lovell
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How good the solution?
The solution must perform well, be secure, be robust and easily managed these characteristics are considered non-functional requirements
“We cut down to six ounces each per day, a fifth of normal intake, and used fruit juices; we ate hot dogs and other wet-pack foods when we ate at all”
- Commander Jim Lovell
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Available resources
Resources include people, technology, legacy systems, technical know-how etc.
“They had thought up a way to attach a CM canister to the LM system by using plastic bags, cardboard, and tape- all materials we had on board. Jack and I put it together: just like building a model airplane”
- Commander Jack Lovell
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Becoming an Becoming an architect is a architect is a
journey journey toward toward
becoming one becoming one who dreams who dreams
of the solution of the solution rather than the rather than the
one who one who builds itbuilds it
“Find purpose, the means will follow. “- Mahatma Gandhi
QUESTIONS?Thank You!
