The Soft Skills of Architecture Part 1

Being a software architect is a tough job. Not only do you have to have significant technical depth and breadth, but you also need to understand the business domain you are working in. While these aspects are important, there is another perhaps more vital aspect of being an architect - the soft skills. Too many architects fail to realize the importance of soft skills, and as a result do not achieve success in their career as an architect. In this two-part session I will focus on the soft skills of architecture. In part one I will cover skills related to techniques such as architecture decisions, architecture refactoring, and communicating your software architecture through diagrams, documentation, and presentation.

Agenda:

  • Architecture decisions
  • Architecture refactoring techniques
  • Communicating your architecture

Mark Richards

About Mark Richards

Mark Richards is an experienced, hands-on software architect involved in the architecture, design, and implementation of microservices architectures, service-oriented architectures, and distributed systems. He has been in the software industry since 1983 and has significant experience and expertise in application, integration, and enterprise architecture. Mark is the founder of DeveloperToArchitect.com, a website devoted to helping developers in the journey to software architect. He is the author of numerous technical books and videos, including the recently published Fundamentals of Software Architecture, Microservices AntiPatterns and Pitfalls, Microservices vs. SOA, the Software Architecture Fundamentals video series, The Enterprise Messaging video series, Java Message Service, 2nd Edition, and contributing author to 97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know. Mark has a master’s degree in computer science and is a regular conference speaker at the No Fluff Just Stuff (NFJS) Symposium Series. He has spoken at hundreds of conferences and user groups around the world on a variety of enterprise-related technical topics.

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