Why we continue to hear about a common behavioral pattern in a job title so called “software architect”: ?
It’s that kind of super senior / ex developer that now is doing fancy n types of diagrams (UML, CRC models, DFD, contract model, …),
well in Agile not that many as in a traditional Unified Model like RUP|
but when it’s time to deliver “something” they fail because they are only diagrammers who don’t write code code at all, or the last time they wrote some code it was when they were promoted from a Senior Dev position.
If you want to be a software architect, not a diagrammer boy, you have to get your hands dirty and understand what works and what doesn’t, get a continuous feel of the current technologies and tools available, read and play with the frameworks, understand the latest IT trends and risks, keep an eye on performance and scalability issues, and again , play play play with the code.
Owning a small piece of functionality (not piece of code, piece of functionality :) , so feature not layer) will keep you in the loop in all the sprints, you will get a feeling of what is going on in the real world and help you come down from the ivory tower 
.
A reading recommandation for today (oldies but goldies), is linked to some big extends with our subject : http://www.agilemodeling.com/essays/agileArchitecture.htm
Happy ”prove it with your code” architecture !
Software diagrammers vs Software architects « Ionel Daniel Condor … | Gaseste.info said
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pedro said
Wow looks like you have been burnt by bad design. Sadly what you are saying is reality and it is up to the developer to sometimes provide constructive criticsm.
Anuj Mehta said
Good post..I completely agree with u
cristian said
Hey….i call some of those ‘poer point architects’ they never fail..on paper everything goes super well ….
Karlo Smid (@karlosmid) said
Hi Ionel!
I totally agree with your opinion. The sad reality is that junior developers that I work with want to become software architects in order to stop with coding because coding is so boring!
Ionel Condor said
wow, that is really bad!!! why someone would choose to work in software if he does not like coding, if he does not code with passion ?
PM Hut said
HI Ionel,
As a project manager, I can tell you with confidence that there are many, many so called software developers out there who don’t want to be software developers or who no longer want to be software developers.