Being a Salesforce Architect is quite a tough job, it’s sandwiched between many different roles.
Talking to experienced architects, I noticed one thing: An architect is a business analyst first, an architect second.
What does that mean?
1) First understand the business
2) Architecture follows business
3) Business value is the goal
4) Working trumps perfect (to an extent)
5) Bonus: Keep your fancy ideas for the weekend
1) First understand the business
The first step in architecting is to understand the business inside out.
Without understanding the business, I can not in any way even start architecting.
There’s so much we can learn from Business Analysts, one thing that comes to mind is business process mapping.
Drawing the business process helped me so often come to a better solution.
This does not mean, we don’t need business analysts, they are great! Business analysts do not replace me in understanding the business.
2) Architecture follows business
Once I understood the business in detail, my architecture follows the business. Every architecture decision is driven by business needs.
3) Business value is the goal
While architecture is technical, it always has to lead to higher business value. Technology must always enable businesses to achieve their goals. I try to always ask myself:
How does this make more money?
How does this reduce cost?
How does this avoid risk?
4) Working trumps perfect (to an extent)
Business needs results, without results no value can be created. While I disapprove of “hack-jobs”, a working solution today (usually) trumps a perfect solution next year.
Business always is a balancing act and that can involve going into understood and managed technical debt to achieve a business goal faster.
5) Bonus: Keep your fancy ideas for the weekend
The last one is very important for me. I love fancy ideas, but I try to keep them to my personal time. Too often in the past, I built something for a client just because I thought it was cool without bringing business value.
Disclaimer: That does not mean, we have to blindly follow all customer requests, but suggesting a “better solution” requires a deep understanding of the business first.