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12 Essential Skills for Software Architects
- By Dave Hendricksen
- Published Sep 25, 2011 by Addison-Wesley Professional.
- Copyright 2012
- Dimensions: 7" x 9-1/8"
- Pages: 288
- Edition: 1st
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-321-71729-5
- ISBN-13: 978-0-321-71729-0
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Product Author Bios
Dave Hendricksen is a software architect at Thomson-Reuters. He recently presented on Designing and Building Large-Scale Systems in an Agile World at the influential Software Engineering Institute at Carnegie-Mellon University.
Master the Crucial Non-Technical Skills Every Software Architect Needs!
Thousands of software professionals have the necessary technical qualifications to become architects, but far fewer have the crucial non-technical skills needed to get hired and succeed in this role. In today’s agile environments, these “soft” skills have grown even more crucial to success as an architect. For many developers, however, these skills don’t come naturally–and they’re rarely addressed in formal training. Now, long-time software architect Dave Hendricksen helps you fill this gap, supercharge your organizational impact, and quickly move to the next level in your career.
In 12 Essential Skills for Software Architects, Hendricksen begins by pinpointing the specific relationship, personal, and business skills that successful architects rely upon. Next, he presents proven methods for systematically developing and sharpening every one of these skills, from negotiation and leadership to pragmatism and vision.
From start to finish, this book’s practical insights can help you get the architect position you want–and thrive once you have it!
The soft skills you need…
…and a coherent framework and practical methodology for mastering them!
Relationship skills
Leadership, politics, gracious behavior, communication, negotiation
Personal skills
Context switching, transparency, passion
Business skills
Pragmatism, vision, business knowledge, innovation
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13 of 16 people found the following review helpful
Rock Solid Advice for Software Architect Soft Skills, By
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This review is from: 12 Essential Skills for Software Architects (Paperback)
The two things I like least about being a software architect is doing documentation and exercising social soft skills. On a lot of projects there comes a time when there is nothing I want to do more than explain to a business user why they are wrong. Dead wrong. We all know that does not fair well with the egos most business users have, and does not fair well with your potential future on the given project. This book contains information that will show you how to use different skills to help you graciously handle the harder conversations.This book is broken into three sections which cover, relationship skills, personal skills, and business skills. Relationship skills has chapters on leadership, politics, gracious behavior, communication, and negotiation. Personal skills has chapters on context switching, transparency, and passion. Business skills has chapters on pragmatism, vision, business knowledge, and innovation. I think... Read more
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Book about soft skills,
This review is from: 12 Essential Skills for Software Architects (Paperback)
Nice book with wrong title.As the author states in preface of the book "My goal for this book is to enable you to learn the essential soft skills that you will need to master as a software architect. This book assumes that you already have the requisite technical skills to become an architect; as such, it does not focus on these types of skills. Instead, this book focuses on 12 essential soft skills that are critical to the daily activities of being an architect. These are the skills that are typically the most challenging for people with technology backgrounds." He shows us soft skills from the point of architect view. But anyone, who wants to be valuable and trust worthy citizen in the business world, will benefit from this book. The author divided the book in three parts (relationship skills, personal skills, and business skills) according to skills relative priority. Relationship skills include: gracious behavior,... Read more
6 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Solid Advice for the Engineer Looking to Make the Next Leap, By
This review is from: 12 Essential Skills for Software Architects (Paperback)
As a Software Engineering Director, I sometimes struggle to find and coach talented engineers as to what things are keeping them from taking the next step, becoming more influential and gaining deserved recognition for their smarts. This book provides the proper checklist and recipes for success to bridge the gap between being a smart person and building the appropriate relationships, business skills and influence to make your bright ideas readily understood and executable.Hendricksen speaks from a position of experience and proven success as a technology leader on some truly complex and interesting projects. With his resumé as proof that he's walked the walk, he provides clear and reasonable coaching to grow in the areas of Relationship Skills, Personal Skills and Business Skills. I encourage all aspiring architects (and other interested leaders in this space) to give this book a read -- even if you feel fully-qualified on these fronts, it's always good to get a... Read more |
Table of Contents
Preface xvii
Acknowledgments xxi
About the Author xxiii
Part I: Relationship Skills 1
Chapter 1: Gracious Behavior 3
How Would Others Describe You? 3
The Technical Ceiling 4
The Road to Becoming a Gracious Professional 6
Summary 23
Bibliography 23
Chapter 2: Communication 25
Communication Principles 26
Communication Strategies 31
Communicating with Executives 41
Summary 45
Bibliography 45
Chapter 3: Negotiation 47
Negotiation Principles 48
Negotiation Strategies 52
Negotiation Prep Work 57
Negotiation Wrap-Up 62
Summary 66
Bibliography 67
Chapter 4: Leadership 69
Leadership Principles 70
Leadership Strategies 76
Leadership Timing 80
Leading Others 85
Summary 89
Bibliography 90
Chapter 5: Politics 93
Politics Defined 93
The Political Marketplace 94
Political Context 98
Political Principles 104
Political Strategies 108
Political Timing 111
Becoming a Good Politician 115
Bibliography 116
Part II: Personal Skills 117
Chapter 6: Transparency 119
Architects Live in a Glass House 119
Types of Transparency 121
Self-Transparency 121
Project Transparency 126
Relational Transparency 133
Becoming a Transparent Architect 136
Bibliography 137
Chapter 7: Passion 139
What Is Passion? 140
Discovering Passion 141
Using Passion as a Guide 145
Protecting Your Passion 151
What Is One Thing You Can Do Today to Pursue Your Passion? 153
Learn to Jump in and Enjoy the Ride 154
Becoming a Passionate Architect 155
Bibliography 156
Chapter 8: Context Switching 157
Self-Awareness Context 160
Architectural Awareness Context 162
Elephant Context 164
Decision Awareness Context 167
Conversational Context 169
Audience Context 169
Project Context 171
Becoming a Context-Aware Architect 173
Bibliography 174
Part III: Business Skills 175
Chapter 9: Business Knowledge 177
Understanding Business 179
Understanding Your Company 183
Understanding Your Customers 185
Understanding Your Domain 188
Help the Business Better Understand Technology 190
Becoming a Business-Savvy Architect 191
Bibliography 192
Chapter 10: Innovation 193
Innovation Defined 194
Establishing Margins 195
Developing an Internal Compass 200
Blending Essential Concepts 204
Becoming a Innovative Architect 210
Bibliography 211
Chapter 11: Pragmatism 213
Pragmatic Architecture Defined 213
Scope Management 214
Risk Management 217
Communication 221
Becoming a Pragmatic Architect 224
Bibliography 225
Chapter 12: Vision 227
Vision Defined 227
Finding and Establishing a Compelling Destination 228
Developing and Establishing a Strategic Roadmap 232
Establishing Aligned Partners 235
Vision in Practice 238
Becoming an Architect with Vision 241
Bibliography 241
Index 243
Sample Pages
Download the sample pages (includes Chapter 7 and Index)
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