Meta-Skills
General material on how architects think and work.
8 terms in this topic
Constraint Thinking
Designing for the budget, timeline, skills, regulations and existing estate that actually exist, rather than for the ones a textbook assumes.
practiceDecision-Making Under Uncertainty
Choosing well when the information is incomplete — by bounding the downside and buying information, rather than by waiting for certainty.
practiceFailure Thinking
Making "what happens when this fails?" a standing question applied to every component and every dependency in a design.
practiceFirst-Principles Reasoning
Reducing a problem to the physical, mathematical or economic facts it rests on, then reasoning up, rather than reasoning from analogy or convention.
practicePattern Recognition
Recognising that a novel-looking problem is an instance of one you have seen before, and knowing which parts of the previous solution transfer.
practicePragmatism
Preferring the simplest architecture that satisfies the requirements, and treating additional structure as a cost that must be justified.
practiceSystems Thinking
Reasoning about a system in terms of the interactions and feedback loops between its parts, rather than the parts individually.
practiceTrade-off Analysis
Making the costs of an architectural choice explicit and comparable, rather than presenting a recommendation as if it were free.
Neighbouring topics
Systems Thinking
Interactions and feedback loops rather than isolated components.
No content yetTrade-off Analysis
Making costs explicit and comparable rather than asserting a preference.
No content yetFirst-Principles Reasoning
Reducing to physics, mathematics and economics, then reasoning up.
No content yetFailure Thinking
Asking of every box and arrow how it fails and how you would know.
No content yetConstraint Thinking
Designing for the budget, skills and regulations that actually exist.
No content yetPattern Recognition
Seeing a familiar problem, and checking whether the forces match.
No content yetPragmatism
The simplest architecture that meets the requirements usually wins.
No content yetJudgement Under Uncertainty
Choosing the best worst case when information is missing.
No content yetBusiness Understanding
Connecting a design to the outcome that pays for it.
No content yetInfluence Without Authority
Getting decisions adopted when you cannot mandate them.
No content yetMentoring
Growing architectural judgement in other people.
No content yetContinuous Learning
Staying current without chasing every new thing.
No content yetEstimation
Sizing work and cost honestly, with the uncertainty stated.
No content yetPrioritisation
Choosing what not to do, and defending it.
No content yetResearch & Evaluation
Assessing a technology quickly without adopting it by accident.
No content yetHandling Ambiguity
Making progress when the requirements are not yet knowable.
No content yetTechnical Leadership
Setting direction and carrying accountability without a team reporting to you.
No content yetEthics in Architecture
Privacy, accessibility, sustainability and the consequences of a design.
No content yetCareer Development
Growing from senior engineer to architect and beyond.
No content yet