Burk Hufnagel

Welcome Alex and Jason. I hope your time here is fun and fruitful.
Burk
PS Hi Jeanne!

Mainak Biswas wrote:
I meant information on how to make best use of one's time; to keep oneself updated on the various technologies, processes etc. I understand there are tens of blogs, articles, magazines etc. However, one may not find time to read all of them, so what are the basic blogs, magazines, websites that an IT architect must follow. What discipline must an IT architect have to keep oneself abreast of all relevant developments?

Mainak,
Interesting questions. Because there are different types of architects, with different responsibilities, I don't think there's one answer that would cover all of them.

However your last question, the one concerning discipline, seems to answer itself. As an architect, you must be disciplined enough to spend time peeking up with what's going on in your field and continuing to learn and improve your skill set.

How does that sound?

Cheers,
Burk

sameer paradkar wrote:As an SME's that should come naturally and should be inherent but mentoring, learning, training has to be an ongoing processes.


Regards,
Sameer

Would you please respond to my question?

sameer paradkar wrote:Hey Burk,

         We had consolidated the domains and questions during the SME's reviews but we did update these details in the title later.

Regards,
Sameer

Sameer,
I was hoping to get you opinion on this topic. Given the popularity of microservices, it seems to me that for many architect positions, there's bound to be some questions about them.
Thank you,
Burk

Mainak Biswas wrote:The OCMJEA is a good starting point, that is for application architecture and not EA as the name says.

In this case, JEA stands for Java Enterprise Architect, meaning you're expected to design your solution using component from Java Enterprise Edition (JEE), as opposed to the Standard or Mobile editions.

Burk

Sameer,
I was reading through the questions people have posted, and it seems to me that more of your answers refer to SME's than architects. So I was wondering how you differentiate between the two positions/roles or do you see them as equivalent terms?  I can see how an architect could be considered a SME if the subject is architecture, but I think SME is more often used for business people or people who understand the business domain rather than technical folks. Would you mind sharing your thoughts about it?

Thanks!
Burk

Sameer,
Will you please reply, at least concerning your approach to helping developers understand the trade-offs between different NFRs.

Thank you,
Burk

Most of the developers, and a lot of architects, I know are NOT people persons. That's part of why they do so well working with a computer all day instead of interacting with other people, and I suspect it's part of why most techies don't like meetings.

That said, I think soft skills should be part of every developer and architect's training so that they can be more comfortable dealing with non-technical folks and presenting their ideas to groups - but I'm not familiar with any company or organization that's set up that way. Have you seen any place that makes soft skills training part of the developer/architect path?

I completely agree with you about continuous learning. It's critical for anyone in a technical career. I'm still curious about your opinion on TOGAF and SAFe certifications.

Anybody want to weigh in on the question of when to consider using a microservices approach?

sameer paradkar wrote:There is a significant details about  the coverage of this title just request the participants to give it a read @ https://coderanch.com/t/675539/careers/Sameer-Paradkar

Sameer,
I read through the posts you mention and I didn't find any references to agile teams or processes or emergent architectures - unless it's under "best practices". What did I miss?

Sameer,
I can't tell from the Table of Contents so can you tell me if the book covers the role of an architect on an Agile team? What are your thoughts on emergent architecture vs BDUF (Big Design Up Front)?

Thanks,
Burk

Or maybe it makes more sense to put microservices in the Cloud domain...

What are your thoughts?

Is there a Glossary or some place in the book where you define the acronyms so people who don't know what they stand for can find out? I know it's possible to look them up online,for someone who doesn't know them it can be hard to guess which entry is the right one then Google returns several candidates.

Sameer,
What's your opinion of certifications like TOGAF (The Open Group Architecture Framework) or SAFe (Scaled Agile Framework for Enterprise)? Do you see value in getting certified, and if so which one's would you recommend? If not, why not?

Thanks,
Burk