From Developer To Architect

A year ago I was looking for a job, and ended up taking a job as a "Technical Architect".

But what exactly is a Technical Architect?

Weren't Software Architects a thing in the 90s, cast away when we learnt about Agile?

In this talk I'm going to tell the story of my year as a Technical Architect in government, and hopefully convince you that there is a place for just enough architecture in modern software development.

Presented at Codeaholics in Hong Kong on August 8th 2018

Transcript

1. from Developer to Architect Matthew Rudy Jacobs Wednesday August 8th 2018 @ Codeaholics HK
2. I'm Matthew @matthewrudy
3. I like sunglasses
4. I started Codeaholics With Eddie and Steve
5. Thought Sauce
6. (My) First HK Ruby meetup
7. Unfortunately, the doodle has gone.
8. 2010 Christmas Party
9. The first ever Codeaholics
10. I ran Hong Kong Code Conf 2014-2016
11. Hong Kong Code Conf 2014
12. Hong Kong Code Conf 2015
13. Hong Kong Code Conf 2016
14. Wouldn't have been possible without
15. the venue
16. the team
17. the attendees
18. Hong Kong Code Conf 2017?
19. 2 days after CodeConf 2016
20. I ended up back in the UK
21. Anyway
22. From Developer To Architect
23. It's a story about me
24. But it's also about you
25. Developer
26. Architect
27. Developer
28. Architect
29. Architect
30. The Transition
31. Chief Architect?
32. This was my job
33. I'm a "Technical Architect"
34. For the UK government
35. In Central London
36. I work on "gogovan for prisoners"
37. Career Progression • Learn to code • Junior Developer • Mid-level Developer • Senior Developer • Lead Developer • Technical Architect • CTO?
38. But, what is an Architect?
39. UML?
40. What is a Technical Architect?
41. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=wDLTSOqNEPU
42. "a developer who gets sent to a lot of meetings"
43. "supporting the evolution from project, to product, to platform"
44. What do I do all day?
45. I talk with "the business"
46. I meet with "users"
47. I work with "developers"
48. I think about what tradeoffs to make
49. I draw pictures
50. I code
51. I do Ops
52. I write beautiful technical documents
53. In summary
54. "I'm a mini-CTO"
55. Winning!
56. Theory Time
57. https://pragprog.com/book/mkdsa/design-it
58. "software architecture is the set of significant design decisions about how the software is organised to promote desired quality attributes and other properties"
59. Quality Attributes • Availability • Performance • Scalability • Security • Maintainability • Affordability •
60. Architecturally Significant Requirements • Constraints • Quality Attributes • Influential Functional Requirements • Other influences • Time • Knowledge • Politics •
61. 6 ways Software Architecture helps
62. "it turns a big problem into smaller, more manageable problems" "
63. "it shows people how to work together"
64. "it looks beyond features and functionality"
65. "it provides a vocabulary for talking about complex ideas"
66. "it helps you avoid costly mistakes"
67. "it enables agility"
68. Why don't most startups have Architects?
69. They do They just call them Developers
70. But often they don't have enough time
71. Give them some time
72. Hire an architect!
73. Hire me?
74. One more thing
75. Hong Kong Code Conf 2018?
76. Thanks