I read a short article by Mike Sax of Sax.net today. It talked about how you can be more competitive in today's IT job market. Basically, the article said you need to call yourself an architect, do a few extra things, and all of a sudden, you're indispensable. It'd be nice if life worked this way, but it's not as easy as Mike makes it out to be.
I hope that nobody is dissillusioned about what it truly takes to become an architect. It sure seems like Mike is. Admittedly, he states that, “This is not about applying a new label to yourself, but about seeking a better way to do your job.” Simply “seeking a better way to do your job” does not make you an architect, tho. As a matter of fact, I'd like to think that 90% (if not all) of developers out there do this on a daily basis. Being an architect isn't about competitive advantage; platform and language do matter; and, your job is not to “find or build the software.” An architect's job is to design a system based on other reusable components and determine what must be custom built (not necessarily look for the best pieces, just identify them). An architect does not write code to accomplish his/her daily tasks. If he/she does, it's more “glue” code than anything. Architects are concerned with how systems are pieced together. Architects need to fully understand the depth of the platform and language, despite what the article says. If you claiming to be an architect, but can't dig deep into the platform/language, then you're asking to be humiliated - whether it be thru project failures or discussions with other architects and developers. How can you be expected to provide advanced technical direction on a project if you don't fully understand what you're getting into? The truth is, you can't.
Granted, nobody knows everything. There will always be times when architects get asked to do things that they've never encountered before. These should be few and far between, tho. If you find that any more than 1/6 of your projects include technologies that are new to you, you're in the wrong job. Ideally, other than simple point of reference, most of your projects should be accomplished without needing to lookup something new or more in-depth than you've accomplished before.
I just fealt like this article tried stress the importance of the architect without emphasizing what being an architect truly means. It almost said that anyone can be an architect. That's not true. It takes a lot of time and experience to get up to par. Most aren't there - and that includes the ones who've had the title for years.