Architect-Skills on Hatem Zidi

The Bad Architect Thinks They Are Good

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Wed, 05 Nov 2025 00:00:00 +0000

“The difference between good and bad architecture is the time you spend on it.”
– David Chipperfield

There is a specific kind of architect that worries me.
Not the junior one learning the ropes. Not the experienced one who double checks the consequences.
I mean the architect who is absolutely convinced they are right, and talks incessantly to prove it.

Survival of the Architect

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Wed, 13 Aug 2025 00:00:00 +0000

I was in the war room at 2 AM, staring to the aftermath of what was supposed to be our next evolutionary leap.

We pushed the final piece of our cloud migration at midnight.
By 12:07 AM, 60% of our customers couldn’t log in.
By 12:15 AM, the rollback plan failed because the servers it was meant to restore to didn’t even exist anymore.

Despite the thorough migration plan, the old system was gone … extinct in a single night, and our “evolved” architecture had nowhere to run.
We didn’t anticipate the blind spots, and the post-mortem read like a crime scene report where we were both the victim and the suspect.

That’s when I realised Darwin’s theory applied to software too: Software behaves like living organisms.

A Good Architect Should Become Useless

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Wed, 16 Jul 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A few years ago, I took a week off. First vacation in months. On day two, I got six Slack messages, three “urgent” calls, and by Wednesday, the team had spun up a new feature that killed the application’s performance like a toddler on an espresso overdose: fast, chaotic, and entirely unsupervised.

That’s when it hit me: I hadn’t built a system, I’d built a babysitting job.

Why Architects Won’t Be Replaced by AI Anytime Soon

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Thu, 13 Feb 2025 00:00:00 +0000

A question has been raised about the future of the architect role with the rise of AI. If human-built software (and SaaS, as claimed by Microsoft’s CEO) is going away, what happens to the practice of architecture?

I’m rarely optimistic (the curse of architecture, I guess), but I feel safe.

Architects Are Useless... Until They're Not

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Thu, 09 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0000

Back in 2014, I was at a meeting with a prominent French bank about a challenging project. At the time, “low-code” was a fresh concept, and the bank aimed to build its own low-code IDE to let business analysts craft UIs and speed up delivery.

The team already knew each other from previous projects, so introductions were a formality. Our manager introduced everyone: “This elegant lady is the delivery manager, that serious gentleman is the team lead…”
When he got to me, the bank’s IT manager interrupted, winked, and joked, “The guy’s doing nothing!”

We laughed sincerely and moved on.

5 Behaviors of Top Architects

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Architects Aren’t Made in Classrooms: The Real Way to Learn the Craft

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Wed, 25 Sep 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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.

How did I evaluate my success as an architect?

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Thu, 11 Jul 2024 00:00:00 +0000

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?

From Specialist to Polyglot: An Architect's Journey

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Tue, 07 Nov 2023 00:00:00 +0000

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.

What I learned from ... (other professions)

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Sun, 19 Sep 2021 00:00:00 +0000

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.

Lessons Learned as/to be a Software Architect

me@hatemzidi.com (Hatem ZIDI) — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 10:17:14 +0000

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.