Skip to content

Above all, do no harm

People ethics for the architect

  • Be wary of your influence: When you suggest a solution, it may get accepted without critical consideration. You remove responsibility from those who will actually execute the task, and limit their feeling of responsibility for the choice.

  • Be humble when suggesting solutions to problems you perceive: The solution you propose might have higher costs than you expect. Your solution might solve the problem poorly. The problem might be smaller than you think.

  • Bureaucracy has its costs: Time wasted in meetings is time not used on progress. All superfluous information (like standards) removes attention from more important pieces of information.

Instead, an architect should be a catalyst for culture:

  • Create forums for others: You have the power to support learning and exchanging experience between those who are doing the work.

  • Promote others: If you know the strong sides and potential of others, you could contribute to their personal development.

  • Be a spokes-person: Those who are doing the work often have a hard time being heard. Communicate their needs and problems upwards, and help them improve on everyday activities.

The above is a rough translation from Johannes Brodwall's blog post about architect considerations.