This is a draft cheat sheet. It is a work in progress and is not finished yet.
Essential Soft Skills
Any Software Architect need to have 12 soft skills to be a successful architect. These skills can be grouped into 3 groups:
1. Relationship skills
2. Personal Skills
3. Business Skills |
These classification are based on relative priority; that is, if you don't have relationship skills, the other two areas don't matter. |
Gracious Behavior
Behavior is a mirror in which every one displays his own image. |
-- Johann Wolfgang |
The Technical Ceiling
One of the challenges that the very best technology folks (the gurus) often have is that they are often a complete pain to deal with. Their approach and means of interacting are completely focused on correctness to the minutest detail. |
The road to gracious behavior begins with the following steps:
Choosing relationships over correctness
Learning to delegate
Realizing that life is reflexive
Acting as though words are seeds
Dealing with others with integrity and honesty without bluntness
Confronting issues in a timely manner
Providing a professional service
Forgiving and forgetting past offenses |
Basics:
Learn to smile (Be approachable)
Learn to proper posture (Stand up or sit up straight with your feet directly under you, shoulders back, chin up.)
Learn to engage others in small talk. (Prime the conversation, put others at ease, begin to build a relationship.)
Learn to focus on others, not yourself.
Be present; be where you are.
Learn to be helpful. (What the other person needs? How can you best help the individual?)
Learn to be concerned. (The world is not just about you.)
Learn to be friendly. (Become a friend – the more you interact with others, the higher the likelihood that you will enjoy the work you do.)
Learn to build trust. (If you say something, do it. If you have an issue with someone, deal directly with that person, rather than discussing it with others.)
Learn to listen. (Repeat what you have heard; don’t draw conclusions; ask questions of genuine interest.)
Be knowledgeable; share information not conclusions.
Allow choice. (One of the best ways to direct a decision is not to dictate, but rather to present selectable alternatives – it allows the other person to take ownership.
Do not stay at the point at hand and go off on a tangent.
Be aware of the entire context of the discussion, and do not repeat unnecessary information or stay outside it.
For the more senior architects, remember that executives are people, too. Treat them like normal people, and they will respond as such. |
Communication
Learning to communicate effectively is a lifelong process – there is always rooms for improvement. Communication of Architects is based on
1. Communication Principles
2. Communication Strategies
3. Communication with Executives |
Communication Principles
Listen First, Talk Later --
|
Communication Strategies
|
Communication with Executives
|
|
|
|
|
|
