In the past I wondered if I was born a little to late to make a meaningful contribution to the world of software engineering. All the possible programming paradigms have already been created, and 15 different languages sprung up around them, all the most important algorithms have been invented and researched, ...
... and then I stumbled upon books like Modern Software Engineering, Accelerate, or Continuous Delivery. Books, which for the first time since we started doing software as a civilisation, talk about it from the lens of "science of discovery".
I found books like The Goal or Phoenix Project. I saw that there is a way to understand all of this through the concept of flow and optimising throughput.
Then I realised that being a software architect, for all this time, meant being the person who understands and organises the flow of value, in whatever form that value is in.
- Software architect organises the flow of data through a software system.
- Cloud architect organises the flow of data through multiple, distributed software systems.
- Logistic supply chain architect organises the flow of goods through a supply chain.
- Civil engineering architect organises the flow of cars through a network of streets and freeways.
- City planning architect organises the flow of people through a city.
It's not an accident modelling people as fluid is used to design metro stations.
To be an architect means to understand the flow of resources through a system, organise and optimise it to achieve some value.
Now, when software engineering for the first time is increasingly understood as science of discovery, a science which requires the existence of an empirical learning cycle, a learning cycle which itself has a throughput and can be designed by optimising the flow of data.
The first time when being a software architect requires taking a step back from the structure of a "single overpass", and requires looking at the "whole city". Only at this level can you understand the "Why?".
Dave, thanks to you software engineering can finally grow up.
Thanks
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