Enter the Full Stack Architect

A bit of a rant, some self-reflection, and a goal to keep pushing modern Enterprise Architecture (EA)

Something happened when I wasn’t paying attention. Now that I’m fully aware of it I’ve realized it’s been taking place slowly over the years and is now a key defining characteristic of my professional self. Reflecting on where I am today and the changes I’ve had to make to be a successful part of the transformational initiatives I’ve worked on in recent years I’ve drawn the conclusion that the modern EA persona has fundamentally changed. It’s a result of all things digital, it was initiated by new ways of working, and it stemmed from organizations looking at EA to lead and drive initiatives not by governance and burdening processes but by rolling up sleeves, diving in, leading others and doing. Maybe I’m right about this, maybe I’m wrong, it’s really not important. What is important is that it’s staring straight at all us architects and is not going to budge until we understand it and deliver or until it finds a way around us because we have failed to understand our role.

Before I get into the topic at hand let me set context. If you’ve read any of my prior articles you’ll see that I touch on architecture leadership, the importance of being hands on, and why a practical architect is far more valuable to an organization than one who focuses on heavy-handed governance, slow processes, and endless paperwork. Don’t get me wrong, these things have a place but must focus on the essentials and be aligned to the software delivery process rather than being point in time gates where everything must be crisp and complete. I’m now going to take this a step further and talk about how to put the practical architect into action and some things you can start doing immediately. I am immensely passionate about this topic; I’ve spent my entire professional career in IT architecture in various roles working with incredible teams. These experiences challenged me in different ways where I had to decide if I wanted to step out of my comfort zone and into a space where I would be forced to learn something new, drive change, and deliver across teams. Each of these experiences impacted me in different ways and shaped me to where I am today and the perspectives I have on all things architecture. There is a point in everyone’s career where you have to change and adapt or fall behind and apart. Change is scary, I won’t argue with that. However, it is increasingly necessary to become better, to rise to the challenge, and adapt to this complex, changing world of IT in which we live.

Throughout my career I very carefully and deliberately chose roles and projects which would develop me in various ways including straight technical skills, leadership, and complex problem-solving. Every step I took was deliberate and carefully thought out by asking myself one simple question, “What can I do to make what I learned permanent and fill in those areas which are gaps?” This question made me think deeply about how I can be a better architect, have more impact, and drive more change. Although these roles included management and leadership positions, I always stayed true to my architecture passion, kept hands on, maintained current skills, and focused on transformative change. I’ve worked on many diverse projects, adopting new and leading edge technologies and driving business and IT change through leadership, influence, collaboration and straight up guts. I’ve always tried to put myself in roles where I can be challenged in many different ways and what I’ve come to realize is that being successful means I have to bring together all of my prior experiences and skills into a single persona — the Full Stack Architect.

What is a Full Stack Architect?

For starters, it is a persona that combines leadership and strategy with solution delivery and technical acumen. It is a bringing together of experience and expertise in enterprise, solution, and business architecture into a single person. It’s the combining of skills in multiple technology disciplines including data, application, cloud, and information security. It is a leader who can influence and drive change, an architect who can design broad and deep, and an engineer who can hands-on lead and mentor developers on the ground. The need for a full stack architect is clear — the drive to transform, modernize, and innovate is everywhere we look. Agile, small teams require those who can operate across at a horizontal, deep within any given team, and who can connect the dots across functional and organizational boundaries. Bringing in modern practices into a legacy world is tough and a Full Stack Architect understands the challenges and knows how to overcome them.

What does a Full Stack Architect do?

A Full Stack Architect maintains a deep understanding of the business, the internal and external forces of change, and are skilled at identifying opportunities. They focus on high impact change and delivery, understand the power of collaboration and influencing, and are not afraid to roll up their sleeves within engineering. They build consensus, find the key players, and know how to make quick decisions with little information while always thinking several steps ahead. They understand the dependencies across architecture domains and make sure solutions are complete. They learn new technologies and experiment to bring those that matter into the workplace while filtering out those not ready for adoption or relevant for their business needs. I know, it sounds a bit like the impossible mission. I can tell you first-hand it is not unreachable. However, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes a certain attitude, passion for your trade as an architect, and years of carefully planned experiences.

Tips and Tricks: Some things I learned along the way and do daily that helped me to be open to change, be taught, and evolve into a Full Stack Architect.

• Avoid the “shiny object syndrome”. I’ve seen many architects fall into this trap. Spend the time required to keep current but don’t select a technology and then search for a problem to solve. There are no shortages of IT solutions out there. Choosing the right one starts with a business opportunity. Start small, solve something tangible, and then scale it. Remember, the things that get built need to be operated and maintained so choose wisely.
• Invest in meeting the right people to uncover high value opportunities for impactful change. Go meet the end users, understand your customer segments, and spend time with those in operations. You’ll need a comprehensive understanding of all these groups and their day-to-day activities to build a balanced solution. When it comes time for laying out your solution, you’ll be able to demonstrate an on-the-ground understanding of the problem space and have a room full of supporters.
• Take on other roles. If you want to be a Full Stack Architect, well…you need to have hands on experience in the stack! At a basic level you should be able to solution across multiple architecture domains and understand cross-cutting concerns. You also need to be up to date and experienced in modern IT practices and tools. So how do you get there? Play a dual role as a product owner while architecting, be a technical lead for a development team, do business architecture. There are no shortages of areas where you can learn, contribute, and lead.
• Take risks, fail fast, be adaptable. The Full Stack Architect isn’t afraid to do something new, doesn’t back down from transformation, and understands that mistakes made are amazing, essential learning opportunities. Experiment with new technologies and frameworks, build working prototypes to find those that drive tangible business value. While you’re doing all of this, listen to those around you because the greatest ideas may come from unexpected places. Lastly, do not do this in isolation and think you’ll be able to go force feed your solution. Rather, do this in a collaborative way with others who will benefit from learning and who will be there to carry things forward with you.
• Be delivery focused and practice critical thinking…constantly. Do not keep a narrow view and be short-sighted. Leaders are trusting you to deliver while keeping an eye on the overall strategy. The Full Stack Architect is agile, delivers in phases, and marches towards the next major milestone. Don’t solution yourself into a corner under a weight of technical debt. Take the required transitions and side steps but get back on track so you can progress towards those business goals waiting for you a few miles away. It may take some time to convince others not to go down a certain path but, believe me, it will be time well spent.
• Don’t get stuck in pictures. Begin rant…whatever you do, don’t be an EA who draws endless pictures, spends time over analyzing, and cannot get into “how” that architecture gets delivered. You must be in the day-to-day, in the grind, leading multiple product teams to bring that architecture to life by defining what technologies to use, what design patterns to leverage, and how everything integrates. I repeat, don’t be a paper architect…end rant.

I sincerely hope this leaves you a bit inspired and explains why a Full Stack Architect is the modern EA. It’s as straightforward as this: being a Full Stack Architect is not just a need of the day. It is a burning need within organizations big and small and is here to stay. Strive to be that Full Stack Architect within your enterprise.