The Pragmatic Craftsman :: Simplicity from complexity : by Stanley Kubasek ::

That’s an exact title from Johanna Rothman’s blog post. I totally agree: architects must code. If you an architect you need feedback. You need feedback because you want to make a better architecture in the future, to make improvements, and to see what doesn’t work. How do you get that feedback? You need to write code. There is no other way. There might be, of course, but most of the time it does not work.

I want to move into architecture in the next couple of years, I like to code: perfect marriage. But architecture is hard, it requires a lot of knowledge in a lot of areas. Most of all, it requires a lot of experience so you know what works and does not work. That’s why I’m learning a lot, keeping an eye on how to improve.

This point from Johanna says it best:

I’ve been a part of projects for 30 years. I’ve been assessing projects for 10 years. And every time I’ve seen an architect who doesn’t participate in the code-writing part of the project, I’ve seen an architecture that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do, never mind extend to inevitable changes in requirements that occur during the project.

Architects need feedback about their architecture. The only way to get feedback is to write the code, integrate it, and see what happens.

RelatedCharacteristics of a Software Architect, my previous post

ReferenceArchitects Must Write Code, Johanna Rothman