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JOCCH publishes papers of significant and lasting value in all areas relating to the use of ICT in support of Cultural Heritage, seeking to combine the best of computing science with real attention to any aspect of the cultural heritage sector.
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are. Architect Tom and his co-orbiters further demonstrate astronautic allegiance by habitually speaking at extremely high levels of abstraction.a This tactic is very important because it allows astronauts to avoid engaging in tangible discussions that might lead to disclosing they really have no idea of what they are talking about. And finally, architecture astronauts often compromise themselves by voicing their dislike of “old” software technologies and design tactics. Astronauts prefer new technologies such as Web services, which now enable distributed computing, and XML, which has unharnessed the power of self-describing data.
At some point in the journey of a project being led by an architecture astronaut, the wheels on spacecraft begin to wobble and the spacesuit shows signs of transparency. It is usually a lack of tangible progress demonstrating the legitimacy of an astronautic vision that ultimately triggers a fiery descent from space. Beyond the traditional diversionary tactic of asserting that the design and development staffs are too incompetent to implement the vision, architecture astronauts rely heavily on the “spacewalk shuffle” where they move fast in their spaceboots to invent even further out-of-this-world ideas with which to divert and calm concerns with the original vision. The most clever architecture astronauts can string a project along all the way until its doom without ever being exposed as the charlatans they really are.
How is it that these astronauts can be placed in organizational positions with significant influence on the technical trajectory of a project? What qualifications entitle some of these astronauts to even have the title “architect” printed on their business cards or appended to their email signatures? The credential my wife earned in a food-handling course entitling her to sell nachos at our son’s track meets represents more qualification for doing her job than many astronauts could produce for doing theirs. My wife, however, does not misrepresent herself as a nacho architect.
There is no evidence to suggest the Architecture Astronaut Continuum will
a Also noted by Joel Spolsky in .
1
cease to exist anytime soon, astronauts will continue to be hired, exposed, and fired. As a result, software projects will continue to be susceptible to the Continuum’s accompanying carnage unless they adopt tactics to defend against it. The time has long passed for many software organizations to protect themselves from the damaging effects of architecture astronautics by requiring some form of credential or training before allowing their employees to call themselves architects or assume the responsibilities of one. The ability to create an illusion of knowledge among people who don’t know any better is really a trait of a shrewd salesperson, not a software architect.
Are you an architecture astronaut that is diverting the technical efforts of your program from following a realistic and value-added trajectory? If so, fear not, there is hope. A flourishing segment of the global marketplace is being fueled by astronauts just like you who have recognized a need to get out of high orbit and restore the constraints of reality to their thinking. Flavors such as peppermint, bayberry, cranberry, and wintergreen are just a few that await at an oxygen bar near you!
Can you hear me Architect Tom?
Can you hear me Architect Tom?
Reference
1. Don’t let architecture astronauts scare you. Joel on software (apr. 21, 2001); http://www.joelonsoftware. com/articles/ fog0000000018.html.
Alex E. Bell ( alex.e.bell@boeing.com) is a software architect with the boeing company.
References:
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