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Articles by domain

All articles, grouped by the part of architecture practice they address. From the role of the architect to integration, services and the influence of new technology.

The architect's role

What the craft involves, which skills count and where the architect makes the difference.

  1. What can I do to become a good IT architect?

    Engineers who want to become architects ask for advice. Which skills really count, and is it meetings all day?

    3 min read

  2. The social contribution of an IT architect

    A question over coffee after swimming practice: what does an IT architect actually do, and what does society get out of it?

    3 min read

  3. The IT architect who doesn't wobble

    A team full of knowledge and methods, and still it did not work. Why technical leadership is the third leg under the stool.

    3 min read

Strategy and organisation

Agility, transformation and the constraints that govern the flow of work.

  1. Do you manage the limitations or do the limitations manage you?

    Six teams working hard and a dashboard that disappoints. What a scout camp from The Goal teaches about constraints.

    2 min read

  2. Who gets the role of transformer?

    Renovating an old farmhouse shows who makes the difference in a transformation, and which role that takes.

    3 min read

  3. Agility maximization

    Companies aim to maximise profit, I was once taught. Why agility has become an equally hard objective.

    2 min read

Working with the business

The conversation between IT and the rest of the organisation, and where it breaks down.

  1. Silence please

    A discussion that gets close to the heart of it and then derails. On the power of silence and the right question.

    1 min read

  2. Does your business also not understand much of this?

    Involving the business rarely works when things get hard. What Amazon shows about who should be making the decisions.

    2 min read

  3. Do you also feel like a slave to your agenda?

    From meeting to meeting, and nothing achieved by the end of the day. On steering your agenda instead of the other way round.

    2 min read

Applications and services

Service types, responsibilities and the management of APIs.

  1. Which type of service do we actually mean?

    Architects aim for a Ubiquitous Language, yet call services all sorts of things. Four categories as a shared language.

    4 min read

  2. Do you also prevent yourself from being double insured?

    Skiing without double insurance. On formalising API management once the number of APIs starts to grow.

    3 min read

Integration and patterns

Proven solutions for recurring integration problems.

  1. With a pattern the almost impossible becomes possible

    A puzzle with 33 marbles shows what a pattern does: it makes a proven solution reusable.

    4 min read

Practices and decisions

Making and recording decisions, and delivering smaller and more often.

  1. Please let's deploy!

    A screen nobody uses yet, and still deployed to production. What DORA says about small steps and frequent deployment.

    4 min read

  2. When do I decide to document the decision?

    Excessive complexity is the punishment for organisations unable to make decisions. On when to record a decision.

    3 min read

Technology and A.I.

What new technology really changes about our work, and what it does not.

  1. The Vibe Architect: speed with clear boundaries

    A.I. makes exploration faster than ever. How does the architect stay responsible for what is decided next?

    2 min read

  2. Post-deterministic IT

    Thirty years in IT, and still the paradigm shifts. What changes when the computer is no longer always right.

    2 min read

  3. Is Artificial Intelligence a hype?

    Nvidia, LinkedIn and inflated claims. Is AI a hype, and how do you tell marketing from actual technology?

    3 min read