Do Architects Need to Code?
Ruth Malan writes on her online blog ‘A Trace in the Sand’ on the topic of ‘Do architects need to code?’.
In part, architecture is about enabling many people to work on a complex system, and still achieve something that is coherent. So the architect needs to have technical insight that comes from technical experience, and the architect needs to be good at achieving alignment with the technical direction, and getting buy-in to the architectural decisions that shape the system and resolve the big challenges. This takes persuasion and influence, skills we associate with leadership and organizational politics.
In an autocratic culture, we may be able get away with less of the politics and influence and rely more on the authority vested in the architect role. But in the highly collaborative, consensus-oriented cultures that characterize most of the businesses we work with, the broader the scope of the architecture, the more the architect has to rely on leadership and organization politics skills to influence and persuade, align and get buy-in. Of course, if the architect has no credibility with the development community, all the political skills in the world will not overcome this deficit.
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