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Do you need software development experience to be a good enterprise architect? | Register To Post |
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| cobus.smit | Posted on: 2006/7/17 7:54 |
Moderator   Joined: 2003/1/11 From: Global Posts: 557 |
Do you need software development experience to be a good enterprise architect? At a glance it may appear to be quite a simple question. But digging deeper, it seems that the development role is quite different from the Enterprise architect - its more than purely abstracting away from the detailed design view. Its about governance, its about people skills and influence. Its about more than technology - it considers process, information and different domains...
Can a non-developer fulfill this role en still be a respected enterprise architect?
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| ruaan.ras | Posted on: 2006/7/21 1:41 |
Home away from home   Joined: 2005/5/20 From: systemiclogic.net Posts: 113 |
Re: Do you need software development experience to be a good enterprise architect? Yes, I definitely think so. I am currently sitting with people working in the Architecture "space", and I don't think all of them have software backgrounds. Yes, they are educated and self driven - so they read up on things like EUP, RUP, EA etc. Taking their experience from their relative backgrounds, they apply it with information from these artifacts.
I would maybe think along the following lines... not all people in an EA team would have to have technological backgrounds - however, it would help a whole lot to have tha software developer / engineer on board of the team - their way of thinking improves input and output regarding the EA work at hand... just a thought
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| lehongsm | Posted on: 2006/7/21 5:53 |
Just popping in  Joined: 2006/7/17 From: eskom.co.za Posts: 2 |
Re: Do you need software development experience to be a good enterprise architect? Not really, you don't quite need software development experience to be a good Enterprise Architect. However you will need access to resources who have a deep understanding of:
1. The limitations of the software development frameworks. 2. Software Development concepts and philosophies. 3. Software Development capabilities and limitations. Enterprise Architects make decisions based on the maturity and capabilities of current technologies. I have seen decisions being made and supported which indicate the lack of understanding of concepts. For instance, developing point-to-point solutions through an Enterprise Intergration Bus - in other words non-reusable interface contracts. I have however, also seen extremely good Enterprise Architects who have never written a line of code in their careers. The strength of such architects has primarily been in their business domain knowledge. It needs to also be noted that different organizations view Enterprise Architecture differently. There is no conformance as yet.  |
| ben.clohesy | Posted on: 2009/1/28 0:33 |
Not too shy to talk   Joined: 2008/2/29 From: SL Australia Posts: 12 |
Re: Do you need software development experience to be a good enterprise architect? Another way to phrase this might be:
"Does an Enterprise Architect develop software?" The answer should be 'no' - in which case you do not need to be an experienced software developer. Personally, I would go a bit further and contend that software developers will bring a sense of project specific solution thinking to enterprise architecture (much the same way a project manager would) and that is not what you want - and perhaps they should be avoided... That isn't to say that developers don't make fine Enterprise Architects, but that they have to be able to lay aside the developer mantle. I think that there is perhaps, at times, a melding of the concept of 'designer' and 'architect' in some institutions - developers make great designers and I would think that you must have some level of experience as a developer to be able to be a designer - but not an enterprise architect. Remember too that a good Enterprise Architect must be able to lay aside technical mumbo-jumbo and be able to synthesis complex business ideas to create a cohesive view of the organisation as a system, not just of the IT applications. Cheers, BC
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