She meant Software Architect

By Scott Andersen

Did she just say Architect?
Its interesting that in the past five or so years the title of software architect has undergone significant change. The initial argument (He’s an architect – so he builds buildings?) added the software in front of the title.

Did she say software architect?
In fact she did. Software Architects build solutions using hardware and software that is offered as a solution to a problem. What ever the problem is in the end, the hardware/software solution to that problem is designed by a software architect.

Did she mean solution, information, business, systems,  security,  enterprise, infrastructure or was she talking about adding a room to her house?
We were past thinking software architects and building architects were the same. But now that  it was a software solution it was growing harder to identify the type of software architect you were talking to without a name tag. It is one of the goals by the way of IASA and in particular the ITAbok – the IT Architect body of knowledge. To create a clearly defined language of software architecture so that the conversation doesn’t require a name tag.

I’ve watched the ITabok grow over the last ten years. In fact since the very first time Paul Preiss talked about it. We were sitting in the bar at a Marriott Hotel in Seattle Washington. We had just completed one of the first MCA boards and after two days we had failed all the people that presented. We were all a little down about certification an the profession of software architecture. That’s when the conversation turned to the ITabok. After that the conversation turned to growing a profession with common language and expectations. That if you said you were a software architect you could have a conversation about conceptual views and logical views. A common ground for all of us to communicate going forward.

The conversation was exciting. In fact that is why I started working with IASA all those years ago. There was something we could do to make the profession of software architects, better.

If you have interest reach out to IASA to contribute by the by.
A common language for software architects. A conceptual view of software architecture that we could all start with. From there we could expand to add our specialty to that conversation. It’s a great idea. The PMbok or project management body of knowledge is an industry changing tool. The ITabok is as well. It’s a chance for our growing profession to take off the name tags and have a conversation as software architects.

Yes, she meant software architect.
Now could you explain to me the difference between Dell’s nomenclature for servers and HP’s nomenclature for servers? I find it a little confusing and am not sure what type of hardware I need to deploy in order to deploy the new solution we’ve built…

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Scott Andersen
IASA Fellow