The Software Architect Elevator

Chapter 9. Architecture Is Selling Options

In Uncertain Times It’s Good to Have a Few Options

Options on sale

Quite frequently I am being asked about the value of architecture, sometimes out of actual curiosity, and at other times as a (welcome) challenge. Sadly, I also consistently find out just how difficult it can be to answer this seemingly harmless question in a succinct and convincing manner for a nontechnical audience. I thus consider having a good answer to this question a valuable skill for any senior architect.

Note

A colleague once suggested that an architect’s key performance indicator (KPI) should be the number of decisions made. While decision making is a defining element of doing architecture, I had a feeling that making as many decisions as possible isn’t what drives my profession.

Measuring an architect’s contribution by the number of decisions they’re making reminded me of trying to measure developers’ productivity in lines of code written. That metric is widely known as a bad idea because poor developers tend to write verbose code with lots of duplication, whereas good developers find short and elegant solutions to complex problems. After a little bit of pondering, I remembered one of Martin Fowler’s most popular articles that also involves decision making, but from a very different point of view.

Reversing Irreversible Decision Making

Many conventional definitions ...