Can architect be a team leader or manager?

Question

Architect, is someone that manages technology just like Project Leader that manages resources/timeline of the project

 

Because of the natural tendency of the role, Project leaders become team leaders/managers that eventually becomes CIO of the organization.

Architects...  hmmm...  I believe they eventually become CTO reporting to CIO.  But do they become managers/team leaders.  Then they dont manage technology.

 

Can/Does architect manage team of developers?  Then with all their time spent on developing the developers, how can they effectively manage the technology and still call themselves as architects.  Either they are not doing good job on one or both unless they have 20 hours a workday (no weekend) to do both effectively

 

What do you guys think?

Answer 1

I think yes, but only as much as anyone can have multiple roles. Is it ideal, probably not. The amount of time spent in each role depends on the project(s) running. If it's a very complicated arch' then it would be impractically, conversely if it's simple then it frees time to spend elsewhere. However, I would think that these sort of roles would typically (although I've no proof) be for in-house architects rather than those that are employed to do a specific job. I.e. those that are looking for the career progression you mention. Although a company with simple arch' that employs an in-house arch' will probably be quite a small company. No facts here, just my opinion.

Answer 2

 

Architects can play multiple role as anybody else in the team. But if you want to use architect's competency to the maximum then make them mentors instead of managers. No offense for managers but in my opinion an architect can be the best mentor for the team. As he has his eyes set on both business and technical goals.

Answer 3

Simply put No. I see an architect as someone as a mentor or a technical SME. A manager to me is someone that oversees the people, who does not have to be technical but has great organizational and customer service skills. A project leader to me is a Jr. PM. Very different from a Lead developer

Answer 4

I think that an architect should be only an architect, not some kind of project manager. Maybe not be even a mentor, because he has to be Architect, not some kind of a person who suggest coding practices for others who can follow or solo what ever they like.

I mean, when people create skyscrapers, do they have a mentor like a guru that gives advice if the mortals seek for the truth? No, the Building Architect creates the architecture and that is it, the architecture is followed and Inspectors come to scrutinize every corner of the skyscraper for has the architecture been followed or not.

Sometimes I hear people talking about is forcing some coding and design conventions necessary or not and what fellow software developers might think about if some person dictates how to develop software. I think talks about necessities is just childish, because we are talking about engineering here so of course there has to be some set and forced rules that are followed. The rules might be discussed, but followed anyway unless changed by the architect or main designer, not by some "extreme programmist" who thinks that "ok guys lets just agree on stuff and lets start doing some software".

Answer 5

Why not, Architects can and should become mentors. 

Because, enterprises does need deep talent pool.  The best way to create that talent pool, is by having good architects, mentor young developers as they aspire to grow as architects along the way.

Sometimes during the course of mentoring, either due to personal career growth or organizational need, these architect mentors are also made as team leaders. 

I have experienced in my career, there are some people transitioned from architects to great team leaders and there are some that has become terrible in both jobs.  Their technical talent is obsolete and they are stuck in a timebox when they used to be only architects and obviously do a terrible job on being a team leaders.

 

I agree with your comments kjmcsd.net about the skills required for managers.

kjmcsd.net wrote:

A manager to me is someone that oversees the people, who does not have to be technical but has great organizational and customer service skills.

So do Architects, does need to have organizational and customer service skills.  Without organizational skill they would never be able to pursuade the teams with their thought process.  And customer service skills are required for any one in any organization, because that keeps them in business

Answer 6

GajaKannan wrote:

So do Architects, does need to have organizational and customer service skills.  Without organizational skill they would never be able to pursuade the teams with their thought process.  And customer service skills are required for any one in any organization, because that keeps them in business

 

Architects need to have great organizational skills and OK customer service skills. From my experience, architects don't interface with the customer on a regular basis like PMs do. Also technical people are not known for the gleeming smile, for most of us are introverts.

Answer 7

I believe that is how industry has stereotyped technical folks as introverts.  I dont buy that argument.  I used to be introvert because it was engrained in my mind that I am a geek so I am introvert.  Later I realized I actually do enjoy interacting with people.  I am seeing that more and more with the other folks I work with as well.

 

Architects do need to have good customer service skills.  Whether internal customer or external.  I interact with IT and business folks with our customers for B2B interactions.  I have to play the customer service skill card during my every interaction.  Also, my internal customers, that are stakeholders of the project or other IT counterparts.  People skill is a necessity for an Architect (required for enterprise architect)

 

Answer 8

Totally agree with Samir's opinion of architects filling the role of mentors.  Not to tell developers exactly how to code, but to set the organization's standards & best practices to be followed.  The architect should be in constant research for better and efficient ways to run the organization processes.

 

Architects should not be manager, project managers, team lead or anything else other than architects and maybe fill in the role of mentor for those who aspire to become architects.  And I'm talking about mentoring no more than 1 person at the time.

 

Answer 9

I think we have to careful not to glotify the role of arch'. The technology and plumbing aspects of arch' are core to the role. The other "soft" skills, although important, are not restricted to the role of arch'. E.g. You don't *need* an arch' in order to have a skilled person mentor others. A program manager *needs* a lot of soft skills, a *good* arch' should have those skill but is it really a requirement? Surely a good <enter role here> should have good soft skills, but it certainly isn't a requirement. I've posted before that I'm happy to work with people that are beyond excellent in their skills but have almost no soft skills...it requires soft skills to manage them!

To reiterate, I believe an arch' should have those skills but it's not an abs. requirement and certainly an arch' isn't the only one to have those skills.
 

Answer 10

The minute you define concrete roles is the minute you set yourself up for failure.  In real life, no one person just does one specific function.  We are not robots    We typically end up doing a multitude of different things depending on what needs to be done, or at least the successful ones do.

 

Defining yourself in a concrete real adds risk.  Take for instance the role of a Server Administrator.  Their job is to maintain a set of server machines and maintain up time.  If you solely focused on this and developed no new skill sets, what would happen is your job would be outsourced to India or China ( since the role is well-understood ) and it would be difficult to move to a different position.

 

Architects, in my opinion, dont manage technology, we define, maintain, and enhance the vision of technology components.  For instance I focus on Enterprise Directory and Identity architectures, but by virtue of that I run into Storage conversations, Deployment, Risk Management etc.  None of which are my core disciplines.

 

In your example of Project Manager, they not only have to develop the project plan and keep the project on track - but they also have to encourage the team to do their work so dates are met, deal with conflicts, handle budgets, and sometimes get invovled with design ( if they are technical ).

 

In this context, good Architects can be team leaders because its jsut an extension of their job.  An Architect cannot do everything even within his own skillset.  Developing a good team allows and Architect to be more effective. It does take more time but its the cost of adding value and growing.  I dont want to dive into the technical details of setting up a federation with another entity, but it falls under my responsibility. Its easier for me to delegate this to someone who really wants to do it, and teach them how to give updates that roll up to me.  This way I get to focus security, management and administative initiatives that speed up implementation and succcess rate.

 

So an Architect can be a team leader, but they have to have the ability more than the desire, and it should be built up over time as he or she falls comfortable with the role they play in the organization.

Answer 11

Thanks for your sharing! It's helpful to me understand more about this. Good thread!