I am an IT Architect in a mid-sized companie based in the EU. I want to share my thoughts, experiences and goals with you. If you are an IT Architect, want to be one or just take a look into a diary of one — this could be interesting for you. My goal is to write this like a diary from the beginning of my career and how things change over the time. What are my personal resources to learn and take a greater view on the fast changing IT World out there. I am curious about a possible echo of some kind of community — if I should write on, or not. The Idea to write this down and share it was not mine. If you might know the great book from Gregor Hohpe “37 Things one Architect know about IT transformation”, what is my personal “Bible” and daily IT Knigge — Gregor Hohpe invite to do it at the end of his book. Speak and write about your knowledge and daily business. Who will know where this journey ends up…
I start my journey in IT as an Software Developer and lead a Software Team for nearly 15 years. In this time I recognized how much I develop my curiosity not only about Software though for the whole picture about different technologies, solutions and the view into the future. Many projects, some of them were successful some not, give me an insight of the needings of the company I work for. So more and more my job turns from a Teamlead and Developer to a Solution Consultant intern. I spent more time in strategy meetings about business questions with the middle and upper Management.
At this point I recognized my passion and I want to know more about all these Architecture Topics. This was the time we (the IT Department) want to redefine our IT Strategy and the Cloud thought was born. So we decided to make a very interesting and unusual switch for a mid-sized company in the EU — we wanted to be a Google Customer. We thought it would be a good Idea to make a real change — not to start a Cloud Journey with the all common Microsoft Environment. This is really uncommon since today for a company like this and a small little story on its own I will tell you later. This was our first step into a real Transformation.
To be an IT Architect is more agile as I thought in the beginning. It is about to learn faster as before what is a proper path or not. You have to make mistakes to be successful. The more you dive into technologies the more you recognize that there is no “best practice”. But this is only the view from the tech-part. The other more challenging part is the culture of a company. You have to learn how to communicate and what are the right arguments for descision maker. Not everytime it is a good idea to come into a meeting with the most sophisticated features and gadgets. Often it is more important to handle about the worries, fears and knowledge gaps your descision makers have. At this time I got the possibility to start my official journey as a Corporate IT Architect and a complete new world start to build before me and I needed more helpful resources what makes my job more valuable. I started to search the web about Books, Blogs etc. to get more into IT Architecture related topics. I realized that it is not only to build more knowledge about new technologie approaches — therefore Google has a great fundus for that. But what I need especially was a guideline for an IT Architect.
The Book I mentioned above from Gregor Hohpe was an eye opener. To get in touch with the daily business of an IT Architect. What are the goals, what is the right mindset and how you should communicate on which level of the company. I really love the pictures Gregor draws (directly or with his words) which are guidelines for my daily work.
On the other hand you have the oppertunity to learn how the big Tech Companies think and what kind of resources they offer to you. So I used all of these to dive deeper and deeper. It was and already is a great experience to work with people from this kind of companies because it is mind freshing. But it is not something I finished already or learned at once. You need time because espacially between a mid-size Company and a Big Tech Company the gap is huge and the mindset is so completely different, that you have to find the right way how use this new knowledge and how to offer it in the right way to your descision makers. But I can already say this much — it is worth to learn all of this because you make a personal journey as well. When I only think about my last 5 years my mindset has changed so drastically. On the other hand you have to watch out that you not too much argu by leaps and bounds only because you have learned so much awesome tech stuff and you think the company has to throw everything overboard at once. I am sure you already know, that the World is changing dramaticilly fast — not only in the tech area. But the year 2020 showed us all how far companies in the era of the Digital Transformation really are. This year showed how important thinkers and visionaries were right when they talked about this transformation and how important it is. This is really a special challenge for mid-sized Companies and traditional driven Companies. They have this attitude to wait for the big ones to implement the newest Gadgets and Mindsets. But now everyone recognized that the time has changed in such a way, that you search for solutions and best practices. Some more and some less. This is something which will not go away anymore!
My plan is now to write about this journey in detail from my personal perspective. I will share some technical insights and problems I have faced in the past and what are my personal goals for the next months. Otherwise I want to gather and share resources I found for my work as well so everyone can get the best of my experiences for themself. I would be happy if you find it interesting and we could discuss about your experiences as well together. Feel free to contact me. So far stay safe and healthy.
