Tuesday, August 6, 2013

Technology Architects need to realize they not paid to be artists

Technology Architects need to realize they are not paid to be artists and people don't expect to pay to self actualize. A key aspect of their function is to communicate, and when there are many working together that means they should use a consistent and relevant set of concepts (objects, relationships, properties, etc.) and communicate those concepts in a consistent way (colours, layouts, shapes, text etc.)

Enterprise architects needs to take some leadership here. While it may be true that for many technology architects (some of whom are really software or systems designers - with a grandiose title) their main audience is themselves (who really reads their SAD tomes), and handful of developers (who can in a project context learn a specifically set of semiotics). Enterprise architects need to co-ordinate communication across an enterprise.

I originally created this to try and communicate the challenges I have in discussions with these people in around 2010/11. In it "Widget" is intended to refer to anything e.g. applications, functions, systems, etc. (http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/7867545/)

I created an updated version that uses the word "Things" instead (http://www.xtranormal.com/watch/13610352/modelling-things).

I kind of prefer the original.