Intro

Although my first article was all about the magic of CSV Schema Validation (check it out if you haven't already!) the majority of my day to day fits firmly into the Solution Architecture remit. I'm sure some code heavy posts will get written (I still have my hobby code, don't tell my boss), consider this Part 1 in a series of very Architecture focused articles where I'm hoping to;

• Give some insight into how I've fallen into the role I'm in.
• What it means to me being an Architect.
• The average (or not so average) day to day life of a Solution Architect.
• Insight, advice and a Sales Pitch for those Engineers who are considering making the move across.

Then if people find those interesting I'll also drop in some more detailed articles on more focused and role specific topics, especially the dreaded Build vs Buy debate that fills most of my days (I enjoy it really) and did somebody mention non-functional requirements!?

The Architect

Of all the roles within the Tech Community, none come with as much inconsistency and widely differing job roles as that of the Technical Architect.

Yes there are lots and lots of flavours of this; Business, Enterprise, Security, Infrastructure, Application, Principal, Solution and a whole host of others that differ from company to company.

You'll almost certainly have experienced working with at least one of these mysterious Architects, who often drift into and out of projects, seemingly preaching down from an Ivory Tower on how things should be done.

Then when they aren't doing that they'll be sighted having hushed conversations with all the "C-Suite" members about top secret initiatives that might be shared months/years later.

That's certainly the overall consensus of Architecture, one I can be guilty of myself sometimes unfortunately. Some of us don't mean to do it, I promise.....

My Journey

So I've pretty stumbled through my career, I did an A-Level in computing because I was sort of good at it and didn't mind it. That then meant going to University and doing Computer Science because again, I wasn't sure on what I wanted to do and it was sort of enjoyable and I was sort of good at it. I was then ejected from University with no real direction, I wasn't prepared for the world of work, either mentally or through my education. I ended up applying for anything I could computer related but found plenty of rejection because of my lack of experience which even to this day, is still the case for many of you.

IT Support

Eventually I managed to land a role at a large IT company close to me doing first line IT support in a call centre. A stepping stone to hopefully work my way up through the organisation. As tedious as that role was, I've always spoken positively of the experience and it's helped shaped a lot of my core skills I still use to this day.

I would be talking to hundreds of people a day, so it forced me to be personable but also how to build rapport with people. Sometimes people would be upset/angry they were having an IT issue and as the "face of the company" I had to try and win them over so we could try and resolve their issue. Typically not the sort of exposure an Engineer has.....

Coupled with that, I had to try and drill down to the underlying problem a customer was having as quickly as possible. I had to learn techniques and the right questions to ask. We were motivated to fix as many issues as possible with the customer on the phone so it became a bit of an art form.

Web Development

I've not been mostly truthful with my experience. While at University I did find myself drawn to Web Development. So while doing my day job, I was honing my skills and dabbling in what I could achieve website wise. I was fortunate enough to get a few private jobs through friends/family and managed to build a bit of a portfolio. Then my stubbornness paid off and my company advertised a role for a trainee web developer which I applied for and got. So I got to write code, learn from peers/senior developers and work on some pretty big sites. What was unique about this role was that I interacted directly with clients. There wasn't a Project Manager or Business Analyst (which today this day still confuses me) instead it was myself and the Team Lead going out to clients, discussing designs, requirements and doing the up sell of what we could deliver for them. I still use the phrase "walking the floor" from that role - which was coined for when the Team Lead and I would visit clients and tour their offices, making contacts and trying to drum up new business. A pretty unique environment but another one that helped shape my core skills. We would solutionise on the fly, so I got very comfortable selling projects to customers.

I moved through a few other companies, tried my hand at agency work but there was something consistent throughout those roles;

• I was always customer facing, selling projects/solutions and learning how to describe something technical in a language my audience would understand.
• I was designing the projects I worked on and naturally leading teams in how we should deliver them.
• Everything would be fast paced, time was money and so decisions needed to be quick and correct first time.
• I found myself writing less code and more taking ownership of what was being delivered/how.
• Project Managers and Business Analysts came into the picture as the industry matured (now I sound old) but I would still be out there with sales directors, pitching for work then helping distil that for the team.

Architecture

Then one day, I was at the SDD Conference in London and I took myself off to a talk by Juval Lowy about being an Architect and that was it, a light bulb went off in my head and although I loved writing code, I loved designing systems more. That was my motivation; how could I do something better, quicker, cheaper. How could I meet that client's requirements and design something that'll exceed their expectations. I went back to my company and pretty much talked them into making me an Architect, officially taking me away from the code (although that never happened and there was always scenarios where I had to roll my sleeves up) and changing my job description to what I had been doing already.

I was raw and had learnt my trade as I went, shaping myself for the companies I worked for so I did some training although to this day, I still don't have any formal qualifications and have a habit of doing things "my way" no matter where I work.

Which is where the title of this article FINALLY comes back in..... does any of what I enjoyed sound like you? Are you an Engineer that drives more enjoyment from the design and the client interaction than writing the code? Can you talk to a room of people about highly technical topics in a language that anybody listening can understand?

Then perhaps secretly you are an Architect and maybe there's a different and better role out there for you!