What Architects Know and Do 'In the organizational phases of the architecting process, we make the point that sponsorship by the management community, and buy-in by the technical community, are vital to the success of the architecture. The political aspect of the architect's role frustrates many architects who just want to "get the job done".'

This point is frequently overlooked by IT pros. Successful technology architectures and platforms are a delicate balancing act between vision, technology, concensus-building, evangalism, and diplomacy. People like Steve Jobs & Bill Gates have become masters of this discipline, and anyone considering a role in technology architecture would do well to take lessons from their experience. I'm not saying we should all become Gates clones (what a boring world that would make ;-), but one can admire an individual's achievements in one area while deploring the same person's behavior in others.