What is your job????
- Thread starter rojo
- Start date
Neil":3g0nur9j said:
Being an engineer and having come from systems integration and support roles where I was hands on old habits die hard. Do I need to say more about how I do my job?
I can understand how you feel about what I would call enterprise architects, they tend to sit in ivory towers, read stuff, then dictate what is implemented and are ultimately not accountable for anything.
Carl.
Carl.
Personally, there seems no middle ground with the architects I've encountered - they either seem out-of-touch, yet rabidly assertive about their designs, or knowingly under-equipped and really expecting the SMEs to do it all, and they just manage it.drcarlos":htf2ecah said:Neil":htf2ecah said:
Being an engineer and having come from systems integration and support roles where I was hands on old habits die hard. Do I need to say more about how I do my job?
I can understand how you feel about what I would call enterprise architects, they tend to sit in ivory towers, read stuff, then dictate what is implemented and are ultimately not accountable for anything.
Carl.
Carl.
Neil":1g4ikizw said:Personally, there seems no middle ground with the architects I've encountered - they either seem out-of-touch, yet rabidly assertive about their designs, or knowingly under-equipped and really expecting the SMEs to do it all, and they just manage it.drcarlos":1g4ikizw said:Neil":1g4ikizw said:
Being an engineer and having come from systems integration and support roles where I was hands on old habits die hard. Do I need to say more about how I do my job?
I can understand how you feel about what I would call enterprise architects, they tend to sit in ivory towers, read stuff, then dictate what is implemented and are ultimately not accountable for anything.
Carl.
Carl.
You do know this is how the industry defines an architect right? :roll: It is not someone own personaly fault if their role within a company is defined in a particular way.
A solution arcitect should understand the concepts and technology they are designing around but the bulk of the knowledge of how it is actually configured should come from SME's or Lines of Service. It is the job of the SME or LoS to signoff on the design before implementation stage.
The majority of the problems come when the designer can get no signoff or reviews from SME's or LoS and is force due to timescales and budgets to proceed.
The failing is usually bad management.
Enterpirse architects are a different lot again, they require no signoff from anyone and they mostly dictate strategy and technology from reading white papers and things others have done without understanding or doing it themselves.
Carl.
I am a certified IT architect working for a very large multinational IT firm. I hear similar moans about architects and it is surprising what different groups of people expect of you.
SMEs are essential to my line of work and I have to own and oversee whatever piece of work I am on at that particular time and to be honest the vast majority of issues in project delivery can firmly be left at the Project Managers door as nine times out of ten if he/she had been managing the work correctly then no issues would have occurred.
TOGAF is a great methodology but repeat certification is a pain if your company won't carry on funding it.
SMEs are essential to my line of work and I have to own and oversee whatever piece of work I am on at that particular time and to be honest the vast majority of issues in project delivery can firmly be left at the Project Managers door as nine times out of ten if he/she had been managing the work correctly then no issues would have occurred.
TOGAF is a great methodology but repeat certification is a pain if your company won't carry on funding it.
Well companies will have their own interpretation of what architects do, as well as generalised ones.drcarlos":2t0g78ar said:
All I'm saying, is that the ones I've encountered, mostly, fall into one of 2 camps:-
1. At one point techies, but by this point, out of touch apart from a high level, or overview knowledge about the technology they're designing - yet still clinging on to the belief that they have technical chops, and their designs are sound.
2. Not really architects, no real technical knowledge or grounding - learnt on the fly, as they can, and are really project managers, with sufficient nous to be able to string a (albeit somewhat hapless) design together, after coercing SMEs to really do their technical design solution, largely, for them.
And as I said, IME that's the issue.drcarlos":2t0g78ar said:
They either seem to have a somewhat stale, veneer of knowledge about the technology their involved in, yet still believe they are authoritative - or - no real understanding or grounding of the technology (even really at a high level) and what they do know, is a smattering, picked up on the fly, as they're not really technical people, as they project manage the technical design they're actually supposed to be authoring.
Indeed, which IME often leads to "That'll never work!" from the SMEs dealing with the over-confident architects, or "How the hell is that supposed to work?" from the woefully inadequate designs from architects that are really no more than PMs.drcarlos":2t0g78ar said:
Well that may happen - but the problems I see is that SMEs are often loath to sign-off things they know are either quite poor, woefully inadequate, will never really work, or be a support nightmate ongoing.drcarlos":2t0g78ar said:
IME, that often stems from the two most common scenarios I experience with designs.
From my perspective, the problems seem to stem from designs produced by people who may no longer be best equipped to fully do that (ie stale knowledge, becoming out of date, as they slowly, but surely, lose touch with the technology), or people who are designing who've never been properly equipped to design (no true technical background - often PMs who've stepped up to the plate, so to speak).
True, often the buck stops there.drcarlos":2t0g78ar said:
And it's not to say that other roles don't have failings - they do, that's just my experience over a few decades.
I understand how it happens, and on occasion do actually meet / deal with some very competent designers / architects. They often tend to be consultants, though, that by sticking to one type of job, through several engagements still retain and maintain sufficient technical chops to do it - as opposed to some that have stuck with companies, flowing through several different roles.
Well there is that.drcarlos":2t0g78ar said:
But in fairness, most high level strategy doesn't always need lots of low level details to muddy the waters. Often the SMEs and techies may object, but that can more be about what they know and prefer, rather than what makes comprehensive sense.
I guess my issue is people who don't seem to have a real understanding, designing solutions that they are invested in, but the SMEs are trying to help by saying "That'll never work properly - there's a load of big flaws..." but it falling on deaf ears, due to overconfidence and belligerence, or those that design something that really is nothing more than a nice diagram, that won't really work until the people who understand the technology have made something partially complete, actually workable.
