Adam Barr came up with an interesting question in the latest MSDN Magazine issue, many of us out there have the ambition of becoming software architects sometime in the near future, but Adam slams such idea and clearly states: there are no software architects!
What if you envy the freedom of design available to physical architects like Frank Gehry or Rem Koolhaas? My response would be that the discipline of software engineering is too immature to climb that conceptual ladder. Architects can design buildings like the Bilbao Guggenheim Museum and the Seattle Public Library because they are supported by centuries of knowledge about civil engineering. The software industry can’t afford the luxury of having everyone operate at this level; most of us are still trying to build a one-story house that doesn’t collapse when you slam the front door.
I have to agree with him, the industry is still too immature for such a role, a fine example of it is the ongoing discussion on issues like SOA, web services or interoperability.
Maybe someday we’ll solve all the engineering problems in software, and
then we can all become architects. In the meantime, we have some
well-crafted software we need to finish.
{ End Bracket }: Proud to Be a Developer
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