The Architect

In IT, we are more and more aware of the need for flexibility. In the systems integration domain, this is one of our main concepts. Sometimes there are very simple techniques to achieve a goal. One of them, often used but not often enough, is the subject of this posting.

The Architect
An architect, whatever sort of, is a remarkable person. She has a number of powerful tools at her disposal. One of her tools that intrigue me the most is her ability to distinguish between things that, in her eyes, are different in nature and have different concerns. She can then conclude that you should separated these assets, and she can advise you as to how you should relate the separated assets, in order to enable you to continue your work, be it better than before, of course.

This ability is highly underestimated. In my opinion, however, it might be her primary trick. The way I think of an architect is of a person who brings order, by preventing people who are too close to reality to be able to overlook it, to throw everything of interest to them on one big heap.

Some people aren’t very good at considering what exactly they are doing and how, and if you are doing the actual work in any kind of domain, you tend to put everything you need within close range, especially when you don’t find the time now and then to sit back and reorganize. If you can’t do this, for whatever what reason, you need an architect!

In my job, I frequently feel the need to separate. It has become a second nature to me. Am I becoming an architect? Not so long ago, I didn’t have so much affinity with these extraordinary wise people, who lived on a cloud high above me, far out of reach. But this urge of mine to separate-and-relate makes me see them quite differently now, it feels like an elevator is bringing me closer to the heavens of the gods.

Some things REALLY ought to be separated. If not, they get you into trouble. You can probably think of some. Would you feel comfortable in a house without any internal walls to divide your toilet from your living room? How about a city with an airport next to your favorite restaurant? Do you keep your financial administration paperwork between your novels on the same bookshelf? Maybe you once did, as a student, and your father took the role of an architect, unasked, for your sake…

Though good architects can advise you beforehand to prevent you getting into trouble, it’s sad to see that they are most often consulted only when you’ve already been plagued for a long time.

Information Technology has its own nasty plagues. But it seems to be very difficult to get a grip on them, and make them explicit. Even more difficult things get when you start looking for their causes. Sometimes it’s better to take an architect’s intuition and indicate a solution-for-almost-everything. I know of such a medicine. I would recommend it to everyone in IT, especially those who have a say in this. So, if you’re experiencing any feelings of discomfort in your work, try this:

SEPARATE CONCEPTS FROM THEIR TECHNICAL REALIZATIONS!

I’m glad I did this while designing our data modeling world. I thought it wise to separate the conceptual aspects of data from the technical ones. And of course, wherever you separate, you should relate, or should I say re-relate. This is how the concept of the corridor is invented. Or, more close to IT, the concept of middleware. In our CDM, this re-relation is done by our third type of data model: The Realization Model (see also the picture in Where do you live and what do you do? -Why, does it matter?). Do you know of any other kind of re-relaters, things specialized in exactly this function? You know, the world is full of them, thanks to our friends on the clouds.