“I hate and categorically refuse quick wins”, I angrily yelled.
The managers in the meeting jumped. They weren’t used to seeing me lose my zen and calm temper so often.

“I have a huge ethical problem with this organisation’s culture of quick wins. We are adding more layers of band-aids before even healing the scares”, I continued.

Being an Architect is like being a conductor¹ in an orchestra. You’re not playing all the instruments, but your job is to make sure everyone is in concert [pun intended] and that the result is harmonious.

I once saw Simon Rattle conducting 6 Berlin school orchestras playing Edvard Grieg’s Peer Gynt Suite. As a matter of fact, they never worked nor rehearsed together before. Their first play was awful and cacophonic, but after multiple corrections and rehearsals, Rattle transformed the final performance into a beautiful and majestical piece.

After a heavy lunch break with a team, Dorian, one (among others) young and competent developer, enthusiastically asked me: “How does someone become an Architect, and what’s the path to follow and what to learn to be one?”

I wasn’t asked this question for the first time, and to be honest, I was never able to answer it properly.

As I am in my late 40ies, I’ll be closing my 25th year as an IT engineer this year and my 20th year as an architect.

As I was reflecting about the journey, I wondered: Am I really a Senior or just a Vintage, a Relic?

We often tend to think that a person with considerable years of experience is usually a respected Senior (as a rank and age), but Experience in some careers is viewed as universally positive, but that’s not necessarily the case in tech.

In other careers, the craft matures. It becomes less technical and more artistic, and people gain more knowledge while effortlessly getting things done.

Lawyers and doctors are respected when they cross into their 50’s. They are held in high esteem. Tech workers don’t collectively share the same belief.

In our case, the rapid change in technologies and tools, plus the weird label that stuck to us as technology handlers, are making us prone to being obsolete in a few years, if not months.

During an after-work with some dear colleagues, one asked: “How can we define our success?”.

People started throwing answers like : by the customer’s happiness, by listing the greatest achievements, the metrics hit, by the completed tasks and goals, the career evolution or even by the gain accumulated.

Unsurprisingly, I was unsatisfied. These answers looked more like a standard pitch to succeed in an interview rather than deep thoughts.

In my opinion, one’s success can’t be measured only by corporate expectations; a career can’t be measured only by goals, achievements or accumulated wealth; a professional can’t be successful only by positive feedback or customer satisfaction.

And what about Architects, as the disgraced-and-always-blamed people in an organization ?
How can they measure their successes, especially since they only provide listening, more questions and rarely one option?

Most architects get pushed toward deeper specialisation over time. I went the other way, and I’ve grown comfortable with the ambiguity that comes with it.

The word “polyglot” has drifted well beyond its linguistic origins. For me, it describes an approach that values breadth over depth in any single stack.

I’ve always been fascinated and reflecting about the peacefulness and the respect that emerges when watching some masters doing their professions.
So, I spent lately some years time observing and trying to see the world through their lenses and may be, and if I’m good enough, adopt their skills and get inspired to improve myself personally and professionally.

The role of the software architect remains a subject of considerable debate: it is vaguely defined, difficult to pin down, and sometimes leads to nonsensical responsibilities in certain job descriptions.

I will not discuss here the precise day-to-day responsibilities of an architect within a team or company, but I will attempt, through my experience, to describe some of the aspects and qualities that any architect should possess.