97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know

Chapter 7. Stand Up!

Udi Dahan is The Software Simplist, recognized by Microsoft Corporation with the coveted Most Valuable Professional award for Solutions Architecture now three years running. Udi is a connected technologies advisor working with Microsoft on WCF, WF, and Oslo. He also serves on the Advisory Boards of the Microsoft Software Factories Initiative and the Patterns & Practices' Prism Project. He provides clients all over the world with training, mentoring, and high-end architecture consulting services, specializing in service-oriented, scalable, and secure .NET architecture design.

—Udi Dahan

AS ARCHITECTS, MANY OF US HAVE GROWN from highly technical positions where our success was derived mainly from our ability to talk to machines. However, in the role of architect much of our communication is now done with our fellow human beings. Whether it's talking to developers about the benefits of employing a specific pattern, or explaining to management the cost-benefit tradeoffs of buying middleware, communication is core to our success.

Although it's difficult to measure an architect's impact on a project, this much is clear: if developers consistently ignore an architect's guidance and management doesn't buy in to his recommendations, the "rightness" of his guidance will do little to advance his career. Experienced architects understand that they need to "sell" their ideas ...