I’m emerging from the haze of planning for my upcoming Architect Boot Camp classes.  My focus is editing my book, and between questions about “which course do I take” and “am I suited to be an architect”, I figured I’d write a series of posts related to the Architect’s Role.

The Architect’s Role

Problems are well less defined for an architect and they must spend the time to ensure that a context has been set before they go about assessing their problem.  They must ensure that the scope and the boundaries of the problem are very well defined.  The primary activity of the architect is to focus on the implications of the organizations objectives on technical choices. They must understand all of the over-arching dynamics and impacts in making such choices, as well as  leading a team of developers, integrators and implementers in the prescribed certain path.

The architect must contain and sustain an overall system view at all times while designing a solution.   The architect builds models of the problem and the solution space and must possess a very analytical and conceptual mind in order to visualize how the pieces may fit.   They must also have a strong ability to recognize patterns and apply things and concepts that they’ve known from their past when they approach new solutions.

Architects explore alternative approaches to almost every solution that is presented to them. They must view and take into account all of the different aspects within the organization such as people, process and technology, as well as technology, data, and applications when determining which approach they will take.  Architects spend a great deal of their time preparing documents, positions, presentations and diagrams, and they must be very strong in communication skills as well as their diagramming and documentation skills.

They must be very good modelers and able to adapt to varying levels of tools and be able to quickly pick up the skills required in order to use these tools readily.   Architects must have a strong business sense, and the ability to scale down or tailor up explanations of architecture to sponsors and stake holders as well as technical staff.  As you see, they must be able to describe things at very detailed levels for technology staff and implementers as well at the highest granular level for the business in order to demonstrate that they understand the business problem.

Success for an architect depends on skills and characteristics that are not typically emphasized in university curricula or on the job training.   An architect gains experience during their years within information technology.  They merge experience they may have gained from other careers and depends on their experience and their keen business sense in order to propose solutions.  They diagram &  document their solutions, and solve the largest and most complex technology problems for the organization.

More on the specific types of architects another day.

Have thoughts on this post?  Drop me a comment.

Happy Architecting!

Just a short one today - we’ll have other exciting news later on…

In the meantime, we’re getting into the swing of fall and “back to school” and our Architect Boot Camp classes are starting to fill.  If you haven’t already visited our training site, visit today and download our course catalog.   There is a full section on “how to decide” what type of architecture training is best for you in this catalog.

Deadlines for earlybird registration are fast approaching:

• Enterprise Architecture Boot Camp (EAB) - September 14, 2008 - Extended - September 19, 2008
• Business Architect Boot Camp (BAB) - September 23, 2008
• IT Architect Boot Camp (IAB) - September 22, 2008
• Solution Architect Boot Camp (SAB) - September 24, 2008

After these dates, registration fees return to normal, and classes that haven’t achieved their minimum registration will be rescheduled or cancelled.  If you are interested, but are just waiting approval let us know — each session we get calls for some of the workshops after the deadline dates indicating interest, and by then we’ve already made decisions to postpone or reschedule or even cancel classes.

If you aren’t sure - just give us a call at  204-488-2819 or leave us a comment about our training registration here.  Did you find it easy, more complicated, or about the same.

First of all - reminder that the deadlines for early bird pricing on the Architect Boot Camp workshops in October are creeping up on us.  Get your registration completed and reserve your spot at Early Bird Rates!  There are limited seats, and all we need is your registration, and you’ve got your spot.  We’ll send you confirmation and invoices.

I’ve been answering a few questions in email lately, so I thought I’d add the questions in this blog:

Question: Do you see a big benefit from the Solution Architect Workshop (SAB)?  What’s the difference between it and the Information Architect Boot Camp Workshop (IAB)?

Answer: The IAB will teach you what the role of IT Architect is, how the various types of IT Architects are interrelated, how they fit into the project lifecycles, and how to be an architect practitioner.  You’ll learn the skills you’ll need to play any architect role and the basic architecture methods and process.

The SAB will teach you how to do solution architecture, review many options and put together solutions.  You will learn the skills as well as the steps and process to complete various Solution Architect activities and artifacts.  It is the best course for someone in a project architect role, provided the attendee already knows how or has basic IT architect knowledge and skills

Question: Should I take both of these courses together?

Answer: As we go through the IAB workshop, we are going to practice the various IT Architect skills as they are taught.  We’ll work on a project throughout the three day workshop, and each successive step will build on the previous, so that we will have gone through a typical Architecture activity from start to finish after we have spent three days together.

In the following two days in the SAB, we’ll learn more about putting solutions together and about the various scenarios the Architect faces when asked to create or update the architecture.  We’ll use the existing Architect’s skills if the attendee is just joining us, or the skills just acquired in the IAB if they are continuing.  It is not necessary to take both, but if you are a self-taught architect, it would be beneficial to take both together, to learn some of the best of breed approaches, and practices.

Question: What happened to the 1 day Architect Boot Camps - The Introduction and the Executive Architect Boot camp?

Answer: These training sessions have been held multiple times in the last few years and demand wasn’t high following the catalog release.  These classes are targetted to be offered as an online offering in October.  There will be some self-study, and some instructor/participant interaction offered.  More information to follow - stay tuned!

Question: Where are the classes being held?

Answer: Currently we are only scheduled for Winnipeg in October.  We have plans to offer some classes in Phoenix Arizona in 2009, and are currently looking into demand in other large Canadian and U.S. centers.  Classes are always available in group settings.  If you are interested in booking a class for 6 participants or more at your workplace, contact us for more information - choose the option of “other” for location and fill out the rest of the form.

Question: Do you offer a coaching and mentoring service?

Answer: Our online coaching service will be released today - more information later on.  We do also offer Enterprise Architecture coaching through EAdirections.  For more information on either of these services, please contact us, or watch for our information blast coming out shortly.  If you would like to get on our list for notification, please fill out the contact request form.

If you have more questions, or have other architecture problems or questions you’d like answered, please give us your comments.

Happy Architecting

As leaves change color, so do our interests.  We’ve been pretty busy carefully planning a new course catalog, scheduling upcoming IT Architect Workshops, and updating and enhancing our class lab exercises.  The book edits have gone on the back burner, and a complete change to the Architect Boot Camp website are imminent.

We try to do the best we can to respond to the needs of those who want to attend our public education offerings, and these changes have been included in the 2008 Fall Catalog:

IT Architect Boot Camp Workshop (IAB) date has now been scheduled for October 20-22 in Winnipeg.  There was good demand for this class, and I’m really pleased that many are interested in learning what it takes to be a great IT Architect from the ground up.

Solution Architect Boot Camp Workshop (SAB) is now shortened, and scheduled for October 23-24 in Winnipeg.  We’ve added Solution Architecture labs to the Information Architect Boot Camp class, and putting these two classes together during the same week made a good deal of sense based on the feedback we were receiving.

Technical Architect Boot Camp Workshop (TAB) - the Public class has been postponed until January;  Please enquire about our in-house group classes if you have a group interested in receiving this training before then.

The Intro to Architect Boot Camp Workshop (iAB) - the public class cancelled - and we are pleased to announce that an online version will be available shortly  - expected date October, 2008**

The Executive Architect Boot Camp Workshop (XAB) public class has been cancelled - the online version is available - expected date October, 2008**

We will do our best to get these online classes up and ready for October - it seems that many have attended these locally and are looking for the next steps.

If you have six or more individuals interested in these classes, enquire about our group in-house sessions for any location.  Courses can then be customized for your industry vertical and specific requirements, and date preferences.

More locations are under review for late fall 2008 and early 2009.

Do you have a comment?  Any ideas about IT Training? We’d love to hear about it - please add your comments.