Another week over and another two projects done and dusted. The first project started *and* finished this week. It was a two day technical consulting engagement where I helped out a support team fix some low level technical issues and assessed the suitability of a physical architecture of an FX trading system. The second, for another capital markets organisation, was the completion of a risk management system that we've been working on for the past couple of months. I've been working as the technical architect on a 3-days a week basis, where I've been doing everything including architecture, development, testing and support.

Although completely different, both projects have been fun in different ways and this is the thing that I really like about consulting. It does sound cliched, but I do like the variety of work. And that raises an interesting question that I *always* seem to get asked.

What exactly do you do?

I tend to introduce myself as a "technical architect" although, more often than not, I do clarify this by saying that I'm a "hands-on software architect" or an "architect with a technology focus". People ask me, particularly when I'm interviewing them, "what would be a typical role for you?". I actually don't have a "typical" role, but I do have a small set of typical *roles* that include the following.

• "Hands-on" software/application/technical/system architecture, where I get involved in :
• Requirements capture and architecture definition.
• Delivery of the architecture, proving the non-functional requirements.
• Design, development and testing.
• Quality assurance.
• Coaching/mentoring/training of aspiring software architects.
• Technology consulting.
• Technology troubleshooting.
• Architecture consulting.
• Architecture reviews.
• Project audits and health checks.
• Technical due diligence on projects and organisations (e.g. for venture capital companies, process improvement, consolidation, etc).

My biggest roles are certainly the hands-on software architecture roles, and I find that the other stuff fits in quite well in the spare time between projects or during those projects when I'm working in a part-time capacity. I also find that the experiences picked up from the shorter roles help when I'm doing the hands-on architecture work, and vice-versa. A good example came this week - seeing a support team in action has made my rethink the way that I architect new systems, making them more supportable and support team friendly.

So what do I do? Mainly software architecture, but then there's a whole bunch of other stuff that's also technical in nature. "Coding the Architecture" sums up my role well. ;-)

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Posted by Simon Brown on 10 August 2007 20:31:00 BST #