Part 1.3 Third Challenge: Us – the techies

Agile architecture - illustration showing lots of tech and a rocket launching indicating positive progress
This entry is part 4 of 4 in the series Part 1 – We’re Here for the Business, Not Purity

The final area of challenge is the difficulty of delivering at a faster pace technology is the technology people…

The mindset of techies impacts our ability to communicate with the business – what seems obvious to the developers and techies is not obvious to the business and vice versa. Often the tech community doesn’t help itself, it doesn’t value the ability to express the technology problems in a way that the business can understand.

Prof. Kokichi Sugihara has created a number of illusions, for instance the cylinder that looks like a square from one angle and a circle from a different one. The techies think they’re doing a great job and delivering what they have been asked to – a nice square. When the business sees result they see and talk about the pro’s and con’s of the circle. There ensues some confused conversations, that can actually last over a number of weeks and impact many, many tickets.

We need to make sure we stand next to the business, so that we can also see clearly what they are describing and not be on the other side of the table.  

What can be done about these challenges?

That is the scene setting. The following blog posts can be read in any order. Each one looks at a problem area and what actions you can take, as an architect.

Part 1.2 – Second challenge:  The Business