12 Essential Technical Skills for Software Architects

This session will focus on the technical skills that are needed by software architects. The role of an architect is not always clear – we often get referred to as glue – because we fill in wherever we are needed.

If you are wondering what an architect should be doing – this presentation will give tips and tricks for being an architect from ideation through product delivery.


Dave Hendricksen

About Dave Hendricksen

Dave is a senior architect for Thomson Reuters and has worked for Thomson Reuters for over 20 years where his focus is on architecting and delivering enterprise hybrid big data systems.

Dave has written two books with Addison-Wesley, and is currently working on a third:


  • 12 Essential Skills for Software Architects – this book focuses on the soft skills needed by software architects, and has also been translated to Chinese.

  • 12 More Essential Skills for Software Architects – this book focuses on the day to day technical skills needed by software architects.

  • (In Progress) Enterprise Big Data – this book focuses on how to architect and build enterprise big data systems.


    • Dave is also the head coach for the Eagan High School FIRST Robotics program with over 150 students and over 60 mentors. Dave also likes to build things like trebuchets, go carts, and rain barrel watering systems.

    More About Dave »