10 tips to become a better Software Architect

The skills you need to be an architect

You have joined as a junior developer, coded for 8-15 solid years. Now is the time to choose between two paths: a) Engineering Manager b) Software Architect.

This post is about all skills needed to be a software architect. Let's start.

1. Ask the right kind of questions

  • Why is this and not that? What is the expertise of the team? What are the trade-offs? Is it the best way to do or is it purely a habit?
  • You are not supposed to be told what needs to be done; you are paid to figure out what needs to be done
  • Listen to the answers provided to the questions

2. Good communication skills

  • The ability to bring people to your discussions, interact with them, making your point without knowing them before.
  • Talking to a computer is easier than talking to people.

3. Adaptability

  • Have an eye on the new market innovations
  • Modify your trade-offs based on the changing business goals
  • Also be open-minded to better suggestions

4. Prioritization skills

  • Prioritise your and others' tasks
  • Time management is an essential and evergreen skill

5. Technology skills

  • Ability to learn new technology

6. Be aware of switching roles

  • If you are good at communication, management may ask you to move into a managerial role and another way around.
  • Fight for what you love ❤️

7. Scaling

  • Share your skills and experiences with other people
  • The more you share the more you grow.

8. Pair programming

  • By Pair programming, not always two developers, but a BA and a QA
  • Mob programming, generally used to solve production issues and deployment

9. Community

  • Getting involved with software that has a strong community like Kafka, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, etc.
  • By giving back to society with the products you developed

10. Internal Learning Sessions

  • Discussion about a new technology or programming language. One presents but everybody participates.
  • Best day to do it is on Monday.

11. Book club

  • A book has been assigned and all pick one chapter and a week later all need to present 5 mins on each chapter in the Internal learning sessions.

12. Conferences

  • Attending conference is good; speaking at conferences is better for a career.

Summarising

  • Technical skills are a bonus.
  • Communication skills
  • Scaling skills by sharing
  • Sharing makes you look good for a career

References

Thanks for reading this far. If you are new to those blogs, welcome, and hi I am Soumendra. You can reach out to me on Twitter or LinkedIn.