Just saw the above job ad from my linkedin feed and this one talks about the company needing a security with a T skill profile.  Meaning have deep dive skills in one or two areas and broad based skills in other areas. Togaf that way has been mixed and matched with other architect skills like Security , Infra , Business , Data , Domain , Functional , Technology architecture domains. This helps a professional have a broad based skill or outlook when they reach a certain career progression path. So one typically gets into the question of what is needed to be an architect . Here is a link on what would be needed to become a good architect for the ones who may want to make that career progression. Steps to transition into an architect path .

The ancient definition of an architect was that he/she should be a many of letters , arts , science , literature , music , architecture ( building / landscape ) etc. Meaning that you should be a Da Vinci to really have that title. But it is not that bad if you are planning to become a solution , IT or enterprise architect. As we all can’t be Da Vinci’s to fill that slot.

If you are wanting to make that transition happen or be exposed to that body of knowledge to help you with having an architect’s mindset then TOGAF® framework comes to the rescue.

Mind you it is not really needed to have a certification to become a good architect. But certifications expose one to a body of knowledge that companies and peers value. You may possess this knowledge by virtue of being in a certain role or vantage point in a company.

Every skill you acquire doubles your odds of success. Scott Adams

RFP in the age of pay as you use / On demand Software ?

As you could see above the Ruler of Dubai has floated an open tender on his linkedin page calling for a solution to traffic congestion . As part of an IT team we are most often tasked with the task of how to prepare an RFP how to respond it and what does it take to ensuring that you are putting your needs across to that prospective vendor or customer out there to whom it needs to go out to.

In the age of cloud and COTS ( Commercial Off the Shelf ) solutions or software there are customers who pick and choose which software solution to buy based on similar success stories and circumvent the need for a formal RFP. They would most often go with a pay as you use model where with a subscription model you have the software solution at your disposal . But this apart the RFP is not dead yet and there are many formal RFP which get circulated like the one above where the need for pick and choose the right solution from the customer makes sense.

Some of the qualities that you would need while responding to an RFP ?

Understand the customer problem as it stands.

Articulate your value proposition to the customer so that you differentiate from the competition ?

Just because there is a solution it would straight way fit the customer’s context.

How are you going to take of customization needs from a solution fitment point of view.

What is the type of language / taxonomy that you would use when you interact with the business folks . Is it same as the IT side of things ?

Do you understand the jargon and the nitty gritties referred to in the RFP ?

Are you technically competent to see the solution in its entirety or are you from the business side of things where you are looking at the solution from a viability perspective from a purely business angle.

Do you understand responding to an RFP has a direct relevance to the development or downstream chain of solutions being offered. Sales promise the world and the reality is delivered by the downstream people.

Ability to think in terms of abstraction is a key asset here . How would you hide the implementation details and look at  a reference architecture to solve these.

How will a reference architecture help you solve these issues , as these shall help creating repeated success in the company and also help iron out issues while solutioning with the client.  What other skills do you find to be lacking here ?

So you want to transition from what you are doing to a role that helps you see customer solutions. There are many solutions for a given problem which one suits the solution the best given the customer context.Most often the tendency is to straight away jump to a problem and start solving it rather than step back and look at the big picture.

So what does the good solution architects have in common.

They are good at communication, good technical  / business background, have a breadth of experience across a spectrum of an area of the industry pie, have an appetite for plugging risk , they can see the high level picture as well go down to the nuts and bolts when needed, they are visionaries , stand for the proposed solution by backing it with a proper rationale and more importantly life long learners.

Here is leaving you with an article that has these thoughts on how to become a solution architect or be better at it if you are already one.

What make a good solution architect ?

What has been your experience that you find is missing among the architect community and what skills are needed to help them look good in front of their peers , stakeholders and customers ?.

Who is an SDET ( Software Developer Engineer in Test / Software Design Engineer in Test) ? Initially started at Microsoft many companies have these job titles these days. Watch a short video on how this role forms one step towards moving self organizing teams. A pure tester alone or developer alone role is fast fading and instead one needs to be a mix of both. End goal is to ship highest quality code just as in engineering , we cannot say that the bridge has only 50 % quality , the engineers lacked focus when it was built. Similarly SDET is redefining the software engineering practice.

More people in the line wanting to become architects/managers , join an architectural practice, better your existing knowledge levels and people wanting to climb the architectural ladder in your organisation can augment your skills can benefit from this training. 

What is EA is it a body of knowledge , bunch of frameworks, tools , practices , methodology , best practices ? Know what it is to know what goes behind EA practices and how they are applied to situations and derive value and showcase improvement in the organisation.

Past sessions had the following mix of people attending this training developers,leads, managers,architects, business analysts , consultants working on IT projects, directors and people who are , going to be part of enterprise projects and wanted to know more on how they are managed and executed.

Following are  some of the aspirations of the candidates who attended this training in the past.

1. How are EA projects managed ?

2. How are EA metrics captured , benefits measured and calculated ?

3. What are the EA frameworks and how are they used and applied in principle ?

4. How is this applicable for product development ?

5. Justify the usefulness of EA and measure overall effectiveness of an EA program.

6. Apply these principles to IT and infrastructure projects.

7. Want to lead a team of EA architects and manage an EA project .

8. Usefulness of Togaf and Zachmann and how to apply them to real life projects and derive value. Understand these frameworks and their relevance in setting up an architectural practice.

9. Convince management on architectural best practice and able to contribute to architectural decision making in the organisation.

10. How can we keep EA technology/platform agnostic ?

11. EA and agility where do they mix and match ? Is it really feasible ?

12. How to keep EA projects in iterations well managed and accountable ?

13. Want to know what this buzz EA is all about and what does it mean as I am currently doing architecture work.

Become good at what you are doing, impress your managers,coworkers by attending this course and finally add value to yourself.

Drop a mail at asketurnti[at]eturnti[dot]com to book yourself or click here.

This a question that pops up in the minds of most people who take the technical route instead of the managerial route or business route after having spent some years of significance in IT. This reminds one of the snake and ladders game where you are playing your cards/dice well but are eaten up due to the monster snake on the path( existing commitments to projects or routine organisational activities). In other words you are simply not able to get time to do the things that you wanted or enrich your skills to the climb the ladder and be an architect. Always bogged down by existing tasks and they do not seem to break free instead keep adding up letting you loose grip of things. Most often we have people saying I need to get into that role because it is more challenging as opposed to what I am doing current. Grass on the other side looks green and shiny each job has its own issues and challenges. The way to work towards a career in architecture would be join linkedin groups focused towards architecture. These days there are many right from data architecture,cloud architecture,enterprise architecture,software architecture,security architecture and so on. Just as you would have made a choice of on your electives in your college stick to one and then pursue it. Drop by blogs , research papers, developers networks, communities, forums and join people who breath the same air.

There are tons of free videos on youtube on this topic and more goggling will get you better focus on what suits you and your existing skill sets. Most often get asked the question in some workshops ,by participants that “I want to be an Architect but my current job has not enough provision to extend my capabilities. Here is some quick things that you could do on that front.

Create your destiny :

Hack1 : Volunteer for activities outside of your work that get recognized as architectural in nature. Fixing analyzing issues, adding a new skill to your tech skill , participating in code reviews, design reviews and demonstrating that you just not know your pieces well but do understand the whole pieces and how they stick together.

Hack2 : Participate in showcasing your skills such as presenting or giving a tech talk at an event internal or external. Get people to listen to you using such forums.

Hack3 : Follow them on twitter , linkedin stalk them . Read what they have to say and how they evolved from developers to their current state. Many will have a of them have funny sides and you can find yourself in those positions as well.

Hack4 : Attend boot camps, developer summits workshops which give you an outside the arena view of things in your topic of interest. Gradually incrementally add little by little to that body of knowledge.

Hack5: Think you have already become one and act like one. Fake it till you make it. You may not have genuine goodness in you but they say initially fake it till it becomes a part of your being.

To be good at something you need to follow the famous principle along with the above hacks “To master something, you need to spend 10,000 hours doing it.” Ask yourself have you put in that effort or are you expecting things too early.

It is a different story that also goes around ” I am architect but do not know what do to”. That is the topic of a separate discussion.

Enterprise Architect is a business man meaning should understand the cost implications involved in running software enterprises end to end. He should be able to wear a BA’s hat when required translating requirements and clearing road blocks which are found at the business/IT intersections. He should be well versed with all forms of business analysis and be able to separate the grain from the husk. So an EA can be someone who progressed from a BA to an EA or became an EA via other routes. At the core of an EA’s skill set is someone who knows the business of running an application / product or an Enterprise using IT.  If you look at how EA has evolved over the years from being a core technical person to someone who bridges the gap between business and IT. 

Most EA are accountable for couple of million in the Project/Product’s outcome. So although good techies can take a product/project to a level it needs business focus to be able to focus on the results of the business outcomes. You can develop a great product using technology but the point of inflection where it meets end user needs and the market can be well understood if the business needs are well understood.

An interesting technology creation is twitter which enabled to let people talk publicly about their cats and dogs. Initially it was thought to be an useless creation having no immediate business value but it has as its core of connecting people at a scale unimaginable in history. The 140 chars is the new low and high as well.

EA should know the business side well …among other things