Mind the architect gap

matt deacon — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 14:14:30 GMT

I’m fortunate to know and work with a great many really influential architects both within my organisation and outside through my work as UK chair of the International Association of Software Architects (IASA). However, it has become increasingly apparent that for some the role of architects/architecture is clear while for others it is not. For me this begs the question that as organisations wake up, could there be and increasing gap between supply and demand of capable architects.

Back last year I commissioned some research with Freeform Dynamics to look at the difference between “progressive” IT organisations and followers. This clearly demonstrated a significant correlation between Architecture, integration and progressive IT. A more recent Forrester study shows the key role of Enterprise Architects in purchasing where “just fewer than 90% of IT execs said it was important, very important, or mandatory for EAs to approve technology purchases”. And back with the IASA, we ran a study with MWD Advisors that demonstrated the value of architects in design and implementation of BPM projects.

While these studies provide empirical evidence of the key role architects play in delivering business value do they also indicate and emerging gap between supply and demand of good architects? As more and more businesses seek architectural guidance will there be enough qualified architects to go round? Indeed this leads us on to what does a qualified architect look like and how do you spot one? Currently, this is measured by “time in service” or “battle scars” (I saw that on a job spec recently) but with corporate governance once again coming under the spotlight is this rule of thumb approach enough? can you trust mission critical systems to a guy with “battle scars”?

I know I’ve said this before, but is it time to we started to define the profession more accurately and perhaps more importantly, start to define the route(s) to becoming a professional? The millennials are rapidly taking over the asylum and out numbering the genXs (I’m one) and worse, the babyboomers are disappearing to the south of France and taking their “battle scars” with them. In many ways you can look at the future of technology in many ways looks similar to phases in the past but is anyone learning from their mistakes? Is anyone interested – you can bet that the milennials aren’t – how many of them have heard of “the mythical man-month” for example?

Technorati Tags: Architecture,baby boomers,GenX,Millenials,IASA

Implications of the Cloud

matt deacon — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 17:14:00 GMT

This March I met with 30 senior architects for two days to discuss cloud computing and what impact this might have on enterprise.

Sessions were delivered from Industry trade associations, industry analysts, early adopters of cloud computing plus sessions covering what Microsoft are up to in this space around data centres, BPOS and Azure.

More photos …

More of the output including slide decks can be found on the Microsoft UK Architect Portal but this is what I collected from various debates and discussions …

Participating Organisations:

AstraZeneca PLC, Atos Origin, Avanade, Bank of America, BP, British Energy, Carbonflame, Centrica, Clifford Chance, Conchango, Easyjet, EDS, Freeform Dynamics, Logica CMG, Nationwide, Royal Mail, Solidsoft, Solidsoft, SunGardps, Unisys, Zurich

Technorati Tags: UKARC,Architecture,Cloud Computing,Azure,BPOS,Microsoft,Architect Council

Matt Deacon's digestive blog : BPOS

Mind the architect gap

Implications of the Cloud