After talking about the failure points, I wondered what makes a good/great architect. Tim stats that we need to develop systems to be more nimble. I couldn't agree more, but the question is why can't companies do that? Why can't architects accomplish that simple statement of "make systems more nimble"?
Both Tim and I are looking for new opportunities so what are these attributes? Do we have control of them?
To explain these attributes, I am going to borrow something from one of my favorite podcasts: Entrepreneurial Thought Leaders Lecture from Stanford University Technology Ventures Program. Although I have learned so much from all of the various pod casts, one of my favorite is from Tina Seeliq entitled What I wish I knew when I was 20. Tina described many important attributes such as Every problem is an opportunity, "the harder I work, the luckier I am" and "never miss an opportunity to be fabulous" and many others.
But the one I want to use here is "Find the intersection between your Interests, Skills and the market." Tina uses this to describe where one should look to find a career. She shows where one of those attributes are missing that it is less than ideal.
Interest + market but no skill then your a fan
Interest + Skills but no market then that's a hobby
skills + market but no interest then that's a "job"
Interest + skills + Market = career: A place where you can invest yourself with reward.
For an enterprise architect, I want to change this slightly. I want to find the traits that are needed for an enterprise architect.
Thus far I've come up with Vision, Passion, Power and Need.
Vision + passion + need but no power = impotent and frustration
Vision + passion + power but no need = unneeded/wasteful projects
Passion + power + need but no vision = future integration opportunity or stuck in the way we've been doing it forever
Vision + power + need but no passion = no buy-in
I would love some thoughts on this. I think this is very critical to finding good architects and empowering them but also how does an architect find a place s/he should be?
