It is hard not to find advice on being a great IT architect. Beyond modelling and technical details, good advice includes effective persuasion, people skills and persistence. However, the need for non-technical skills is often left as self-evident or explained superficially. It also glosses over important details and distinctions. Traditionally, IT has two types of roles. The first role is the implementor, such as a software developer, network engineer or QA. They produce non-delegatable outcomes. The second role is a manager or executive, someone accountable when something goes well or poorl ..read more

For most of us, smartphones replaced paper maps long ago. You enter your destination, and it presents you with multiple potential routes. Given one route is often fastest, why bother? The smartphone may not have all the information, such as weather or traffic. The phone does not know that an alternate route may be faster. Perhaps the environment changes after navigation starts. Having a prepared alternate makes switching routes easier. Speed may not be the crucial attribute. Maybe the driver wants the psychological safety of a familiar but slower route. Maybe one route is more enjoyable and s ..read more

The image is from https://digileaders.com/webinar-shape-agile-organisation/, used under Creative Commons license. It seems every organization wants to transform itself to become more agile. They want to respond to opportunities quickly and cost-effectively. They want to adapt faster than their competition in the Darwinian corporate landscape. COVID-19, for example, required a quick shift to remote working for their employees and remote interactions with clients and suppliers. Geopolitical changes alter supply chains and increase legislation. Cloud, IoT and similar internal IT trends accelerate ..read more

My glorious, slightly dirty toaster A few weeks ago, my wife was cleaning the kitchen. She unplugged the toaster that I use every morning, cleaned the bench then plugged it back in. Unfortunately, she plugged it into the left power socket not the right. I turn off my toaster when I am not using it. When I made my breakfast the next morning, I placed the bread in the toaster then instinctively turned on the right power socket. A few minutes later, I wondered where my toast was. I discovered I had turned on the wrong socket, as you can see in the image above. Amused at my mistake, I switched on ..read more

Australian Cyber Security Magazine published an article of mine titled “Information Security meets scaled Agile”, describing how large scale Agile processes work and how Information Security can best adapt to it and succeed. The article is on pages 18 to 20 ..read more

You have just presented your architecture to management. You slaved over every technical detail, followed all the standard templates and convinced all the technical leads. Every “i” is dotted and “t” crossed. Expecting praise for a job well done, the presentation never really engaged with the audience. The R&D manager asked about an off-the-shelf solution instead and the operations and IT managers argued over who would operate the system. Others seemed disinterested. What went wrong? Software developers, infrastructure engineers and other technical roles reflexively solve problems u ..read more