You start writing code, you start compiling code then you ship code.
Rinse and Repeat.
Slowly the work being given to you gets bigger and larger, you’re not doing bugs anymore, you’re working on full-scale PBIs, Features, and Releases.
At the same time, you start to look back at some of the old code you wrote only to declare – “Holy Hippo Spit what was I drinking when I wrote this”.
So you start to put more time into the design, to account for mistakes of the past and make something better for the work that you are now being given.
Perhaps you have a team looking to you for guidance, perhaps you don’t – regardless you are now doing more design than code.
You are now an Architect.
Maybe it happened overnight when someone left your team, maybe it happened over a few years of you showing up and doing great work, maybe you were hired to do it.
Whatever the case.
You are now an architect.
Want to be a good architect?
Don’t design for 5 years down the line.
Don’t stop learning new ways to solve old problems.
Don’t stop challenging what you previously did so you can make it better.
Don’t get hung up on frameworks.
Don’t stop doing what got you there, keep coding, keep implementing, keep making it work.
Do take the time to mentor others and onboard them.
Do ask for suggestions and feedback to your crazy ideas.
Do have fun and laugh at your mistakes.
