Beyond the technical: Succeed at leading a software architecture team

Description

Software architects and enterprise architects work with a variety of roles. Often the deep technical work is performed by other application architects or solutions architects. Maggie Carroll explores developing influence as well as skills and actionable techniques she found useful when creating a new enterprise architecture (EA) function and a tool for remaining productive as a leader. She develops a framework for using less than 10 hours each week to avoiding the “firefighting” mode and remaining productive as a leader.

Maggie takes an honest look at the level of success and pivoting for starting up a new EA function in an IT team comprised of solution architects leading agile Scrum teams. Each of her topics was a key element of meeting both challenges and is presented with examples from her experience, showing what led to success and what led to pivot (fail then adapt).

The first step is to ask what the goal is and begin with the end in mind. You must align with corporate strategy, find alignments with business partners, and identify artifacts to communicate ongoing success, such as a road map or a schedule. She also suggests that gaining influence starts with ownership—business partners are key stakeholders. To energize the team, you need to create opportunities for success with skill development, including effective estimation, governance that works, deciding whether or not to meet, and the need to celebrate, acknowledge, and reward. Finally, you have to lather, rinse, and repeat by documenting your business rhythm, following your business rhythm, improving your business rhythm, and communicating with the stakeholders.