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IN THIS SECTION, YOU WILL: Get a cheatsheet with all key points from in all sections.

Introductions

Introduction

  • This book will share my approach to running an IT architecture practice in larger organizations based on my experience at AVIV Group, eBay Classifieds, and Adevinta. I call this approach “Grounded Architecture”—architecture with strong foundations and deep roots.
  • Prioritizing people interactions and data over processes and tools, Grounded Architecture aims to connect an architecture practice to all organizational levels as an antidote to the “ivory tower” architecture.
  • I also explain my motivation to write this book.

Context: Fast-Moving Global Organizations

  • To better understand any idea or solution, it is crucial to understand the context in which this idea developed.
  • The Grounded Architecture approach has evolved in the context of global, loosely coupled organizations that are diverse, with nonlinear growth dynamics, and under transformation pressures.

Goals: Adapting, Growing, and Using Data

  • I identified the following needs that an architecture practice should support: Executing At Scale, Adaptivity, Improving the Quality of Decision-Making with Data, and Maximizing Organizational Alignment & Learning.

Grounded Architecture Framework

Lightweight Architectural Analytics

  • Lightweight Architectural Analytics serves as a medium to create a complete, up-to-date picture of critical elements of the organization’s technology landscapes.
  • Such analytics provides an architecture-centric view of data about a technology landscape based on source code analyses, public cloud billing reports, vibrancy reports, or incident tickets.
  • To facilitate the creation of Lightweight Architectural Analytics, I have been creating open-source tools that can help you obtain valuable architectural insights from data sources, such as source code repositories. Check out open-source architecture dashboard examples and Sokrates.

Collaborative Networks

  • Developing an architecture practice requires having competent, empowered, and motivated architects. An an architecture practice must carefully organize, empower, and leverage scarce talent.
  • In my work in the past few years, I combined two teams of architects: a small central architecture team and a cross-organizational distributed virtual team.

Operating Model: General Principles

  • The Operating Model is a system of processes and agreements enabling architects to do everything architecture typically does, leveraging Lightweight Architectural Analytics and Collaborative Networks to create a data-informed, organization-wide impact.
  • Examples of activities include: supporting teams in their daily work; tracking tech debt; performing technical due diligence; standardizing processes and documentation; defining cloud, data, and platform strategies.

Cooperation-Based Operating Model: Six Simple Rules

  • The Six Simple Rules approach emphasizes that in today’s complicated business environment, you must set up organizational structures based on cooperation.
  • To deal with complexity, organizations should depend on the judgment of their people and on these people cooperating.
  • This view is well aligned with the ideas of Grounded Architecture.

Operating Model: Nudge, Taxation, Mandates

  • Architecture practice should support governance models adaptable to organizations’ complex and diverse needs. A technology governance model should be a well-balanced hybrid of three different styles of governing: mandates and bans, taxes, and nudging.
  • Nudging is a form of governing where you create subtle or indirect suggestions influencing someone’s behavior or decision-making without forcing them or limiting their freedom of choice.
  • Governing with taxes (economic incentives) is a form of guiding in which people are not forbidden to make some decisions but need to “pay” some form of taxes on used resources.
  • With mandates and bans, you guide people by explicitly defining what they should or should not do.

Transforming Organizations with Grounded Architecture

  • When a Grounded Architecture framework is in place, it can positively transform an organization’s functioning.
  • These impact categories are Executing At Scale, Improving the Quality of Decision-Making with Data, Maximizing Organizational Alignment & Learning, and Higher Adaptivity.

On Being Architect

Building Skills

  • An architect’s typical skillset includes hard (technical) skills, soft (people & social) skills, product development, business skills, and decision-making skills.
  • Hard (technical) skills are essential for designing, implementing, and maintaining an organization’s technology landscape.
  • Soft skills are integral to social architecture, enabling individuals to navigate and contribute to these social systems effectively.

Making Impact

  • Architects’ work is evaluated based on their impact on the organization.
  • Architects can make an impact via three pillars: Big-Picture Thinking, Execution, and Leveling-Up.

Leadership Traits

  • My view of architecture leadership is inspired by David Marquet’s work and Netflix’s valued behaviors.
  • Marquet focused on leadership and organizational management, particularly emphasizing the principles of Intent-Based Leadership.
  • Borrowing from Netflix’s original values, I see the following behavioral traits as crucial for architects: communication, judgment, impact, inclusion, selflessness, courage, integrity, curiosity, innovation, and passion.

Thinking Like an Architect: Architects as Superglue

  • Architects in IT organizations should develop as “superglue,” people who hold architecture, technical details, business needs, and people together across a large organization or complex projects.
  • Architects need to be technically strong. But their unique strengths should stem from being able to relate technical issues with business and broader issues.

Thinking Like an Architect: Balancing Curiosity, Doubt, Vision, and Skepticism

  • Curiosity and wonder spark exploration, leading to technological breakthroughs. However, without caution, it can result in premature adoption of immature solutions.
  • Doubt forces a critical evaluation of progress, ensuring that innovative ideas are grounded in practical and validated approaches. Over-reliance on doubt can stifle risk-taking and hinder breakthrough innovation.
  • Vision and belief provide a long-term perspective, guiding efforts toward significant, transformative goals. Yet unchecked vision can lead to confirmation bias or misdirected resources.
  • Skepticism helps prevent overcommitment to unproven ideas, ensuring teams remain grounded. However, excessive skepticism can result in missed opportunities and discourage creative risk-taking.

Architects’ Career Paths

  • A strong engineering background is essential for architects to make informed technology decisions and build effective relationships with developer teams.
  • Moving from an engineering role to an architecture role involves broadening scope, increasing diversity, and developing strong communication and influencer skills.
  • Career tracks can include Senior Architects (broader responsibilities), Principal Architects (specialized focus), and Enterprise Architects (aligning technical strategy with business objectives).
  • Architecture roles can lead to tech leadership positions such as Engineering Director or Chief Technology Officer (CTO), leveraging strategic vision, decision-making, and leadership skills.

On Human Complexity

The Culture Map: Architects’ Culture Compass

  • I have found the work of Erin Meyer, The Culture Map, to be a beneficial tool for architects to work harmoniously with people from various cultures and backgrounds.
  • Meyer’s model contains eight scales, each representing a key area, showing how cultures vary from extreme to extreme: Communicating, Evaluating, Persuading, Leading, Deciding, Trusting, Disagreeing, and Scheduling.

The Human Side of Decision-Making

  • Decision-making is a human activity subject to human biases and limitations.
  • Fundamental biases influencing decision-making include outcome, hindsight, and confirmation biases.
  • Human intuition plays a vital role in decision-making.

Effortless Architecture

  • Greg McKeown’s “Effortless: Make It Easier to Do What Matters Most” advocates for a paradigm shift from hard work to smart, effective work by simplifying tasks and processes.
  • Key principles include prioritizing important tasks, leveraging automation, and embracing a mindset that values ease and enjoyment in work.
  • Greg McKeown’s book offers invaluable insights that are particularly relevant for IT architects and software engineers. McKeown’s emphasis on simplifying tasks and processes is crucial in the tech industry, where complexity often dominates.

Expanding the Architect’s Toolkit: Learning From Other Fields

Architecture in Product-Led Organizations: Learning From Customer-Centric Fields

  • When it comes to product development, I generally recommend two resources for architects: “Escaping the Build Trap: How Effective Product Management Creates Real Value” by Melissa Perri and “The Discipline of Market Leader” by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema.
  • The build trap occurs when businesses focus too much on their product’s features and functionalities, overlooking customers’ needs and preferences.
  • The Discipline of Market Leader highlights three strategic paths a company can use to achieve market leadership: operational excellence, product leadership, and customer intimacy.

Decision Intelligence in IT Architecture: Learning From Data, Social, and Managerial Fields

  • Decision intelligence is the discipline of turning information into better actions.
  • A decision involves more than just selecting from available options; it represents a commitment of resources you

Economic Modeling With ROI and Financial Options: Learning From the Finance Field

  • Architects are frequently asked about the (economic) value of architecture or technology investments.
  • Answering this question is a crucial skill for any senior architect. However, answering it concisely and convincingly to a non-technical audience may be difficult.
  • Borrowing from existing literature, I sketch two answers to the question of the economic value of architecture: the return on investment metaphor and the selling options metaphor.

How Big Transformations Get Done: Learning From Mega-Projects

  • IT transformation projects are large-scale, multi-year endeavors that often aim for significant organizational changes, such as creating unified IT platforms after mergers, and they frequently face challenges similar to other mega-projects.
  • Common cognitive biases and decision-making fallacies like overconfidence, strategic misrepresentation, and the sunk cost fallacy often derail these projects, leading to cost overruns, delays, and underperformance.
  • Flyvbjerg and Gardner’s book “How Big Things Get Done” highlights lessons from successful and failed mega-projects across various industries, offering 11 practical heuristics for improving project leadership, including hiring the right experts, building modular systems, and focusing on risk mitigation.
  • Key strategies for IT success include taking the outside view to learn from similar projects, fostering strong stakeholder relationships, and avoiding unnecessary complexity or scope creep by staying focused on core objectives.
Appendix 4: Software Tools
← Building Lightweight Architectural Analytics