A client recently posed this question (and 4 others) to us - the internal discussion regarding this question is interesting ...
[AD:]
Some of this can be taught but there is no substitute for experience and having the right people around you. Having a coach/mentor and getting projects under your belt is key. The projects can be good and bad as you learn much from the bad ones too!
[AB: ]
yeah, I'd have to say experience and proper understanding and application of patterns. Testing architectures with other designers/architects is a must too
[SM:]
a. Analysis & Design skills competent to at least what our OUML course teaches.
b. Knowledge of patterns and strategies
c. Understanding of component based architectures
d. Complexity in design and how to address it
e. Understand the basics of a development process
f. Unit, Integration and System Testing experience (not just knowledge)
g. Documentation of designs (see next)
[JE]
In general terms, there are certain things you can do to a developer to make him a better designer. Almost all of it is based around three things, experience, education and community. On the professional education side you need to give developers the opportunity to experiment and work in diverse areas to learn. Doing the same thing over and over does nothing to improve design skills. You can short-cut to some experience is appropriate training, but it’s not a complete substitute. The best thing you can do for a developer to make them improve is expose them to the greater community via web forums / conferences / podcasts / visits / postings / staff turn-over / etc. Making the internet and the communities hosted on it as available as air maximises the opportunities to pick up new knowledge. Forcing developers to “learn a second language” is also a good idea, it forces them to evaluate which parts of their skills are platform dependant and which are more universal. This also teaches a pragmatism of approach – once you figure out what you can do to determine the important design elements of a system the translation to implementation is much smoother.
In addition to the professional knowledge, the developers need improved social and writing skills, again the community is a great source of knowledge and practice. Ideally you want your developers to have the personal and professional confidence to speak on their ideas in public.
One of the things you pick up with experienced developers is a bit of the old-boys-network. Every senior developer I know has a network of people they can call and consult with informally on hard technical questions. Object does an excellent job of internalising some of this network via practice groups, BDO, etc. Many organisations don’t seem to have this kind of internal community building mechanism.
[SW]
Bravado (put something out there) and Humility (watch it get picked apart/admitting you don't know everything), contacts (know who to ask), love of design and a hunger to learn and communication skills (up to architects and down to developers). By far the most important intervention would be mentoring.
[LC:]
Everyone has different experience and skills but they can all be good designers.
I think MeNtOR describes (sometimes explicitly and sometimes implicitly) what is required for a good designer.
You can also use Brett's presentation in the Architecture Forum.
[MC: ]
AD is right in that having a mentor is key. In fact, this is a support structure we’re actively introducing into the Melbourne office. Key senior people actually consulting across projects, offering support for the “Project Architect”. I personally don’t think reviewing architectural decisions that have already been made is anywhere near as useful as having someone to make them with, work on a problem together & come up with a solution that fits.
I see this as a training/mentoring opportunity for less experienced architects, and an opportunity for more senior architects to remain current while still putting their experience to best use. I also see it as a good career opportunity for more senior architects, keeping their interest and hence improving retention in a strong market.
As for skills, soft skills are just as important as a technical background. Having done at least some BA work is a definite bonus. I think Andy’s St George slide covered this one pretty well. Being technical is a very small part of the job.
[MP ]
Designers should be involved on multiple projects across multiple business units within the bank. This fosters a depth of business knowledge and understanding of issues facing bank as whole. It also allows for cross pollination of idea’s, skills, techniques, etc.
Carl Rogers - Principal Consultant & Process Development Architect