I attended a Microsoft ArcReady presentation by Clint Edmonson entitled Professional Patterns on the Job. I remember hearing a great quote while listening to DNR - "an architect's job is to help keep software projects from failing." It's easy and fun to go heads down on a project and code. It's harder to look around at what is missing and what is needed and where the gaps are. As architects we need to take the time to improve our soft skills. There will always be developers on your team that are better at coding. So instead of working on learning each and every nuance of WF, generalize, learn the gotcha's, and then spend some time learning other "stuff". Here's a couple of Clint's points to think on.
- Be early - 5 min in this building; 15 min across town; 5 hours in another city
- Follow through - build a contract of tasks and let others know of your results
- Be prepared to have the hard conversations
- Have you consensus reached before the meeting even takes place