Make sure you can, and like to, do these 4 things…¶
Being a Solution Architect involves many things that change…. mainframes, client-server, distributed computing, object oriented, the web, the cloud, blah blah blah. You get the picture. However, working with the technologies and people over the years, I’ve also come to see that 4 things really matter if you want to be a Solution Architect.
If you can, and like to do these things, you will be successful in the role.
- Think: Use critical thinking to be able to work through problems.
- Learn: In the IT space you have to do this daily.
- Draw a Picture: Yes… get the crayons out… I’ll explain more in a bit.
- Craft and communicate a message clearly and concisely.
I’ll come back to each of these in subsequent posts, but let’s take a quick look at these in more detail:
Think:¶
OK.. yes this is obvious. BUT… it is surprising how many people DON’T.. or can’t think through a problem. Ok.. I’ll get off my soapbox. As a Solution Architect “thinking” can to be narrowed down to “architectural thinking”, usually in the form of an architect decision.
Thinking through an architecture decision, usually is centered on 1) Defining the problem,
2) organizing your understanding of the domain and key assumptions,
3) laying out the options with pros and cons, and 4) making a decision.
I’m oversimplifying this.. but when you do this AND when you write it down you will find that it not only helps you work through the problem and come to a solution, it also helps explain the problem to others.
Looking for a historical real life example…. I’ve always found this interesting: https://www.openculture.com/2017/07/leonardo-da-vincis-visionary-notebooks-now-online-browse-570-digitized-pages.html
Learn:¶
This one is probably self explanatory in the IT world. As a Solution Architect you are constantly being bombarded with new products, technologies etc… so you better be a self motivated learner. One thing to note: the longer you do this job, the more you see architectures, patterns, and approaches coming back… only in new variations with new names.
Also.. remember to really “learn” something you need to get hands on with the technology. More about this later.
Draw a Picture:¶
Ok.. this is my pet peeve.. and why my kids put crayons on my desk. In my view, most people are visual. They understand something better if they can see if visually. In the IT world this is more important than ever since things are, well, invisible for the most part.
You need to be able to create a visual view of the problem AND the solution. In my experience this will help YOU not only understand it, but also explain it to someone else. AND…. I’m not talking about a “marketecture” level picture on a Powerpoint slide. It needs to be at a level of detail that really shows you understand the problem and solution.
You can find some examples of how I do this in the Cloud Notebook and my older MicroServices blog accessed via this site.
BUT…
Craft and Communicate a message:¶
While a picture is key… as a Solution Architect you need to make sure you are able to ensure people UNDERSTAND what you are saying. Yes.. this can be hard for deep technical people.
Too often I’ve seen people drone on trying to explain something with 1,000 words when 10 words would do. Don’t be that type of person.
Being able to craft a clear and concise message AND communicate that to clients is probably the biggest challenge for Solution Architects.
I’ll return to these themes in other posts and provide more thoughts and clarifying examples (i.e. pictures ) what I mean.
For now.. keep TLDC in mind. Oh.. remember Solution Architects need to be able work with acronyms :)