It Takes Diligence

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It Takes Diligence

Brian Hart

An ARCHiTECT's JoB is oFTEn portrayed as a activity focused on inge-nuity and problem solving. Ingenuity is a key trait of successful architects. However, an equally important characteristic of the activities of a successful architect are diligence. Diligence can manifest itself in many ways, but ultimately it is a exercise in perseverance and paying the right amount O F attention to all task and each architectural goal of the system.
Diligence goes hand in hand with the mundane. Successful architecture prac-tices is in many ways mundane. Effective architects often follow mundane daily and weekly checklists to remind them of that which they already know Acade Mically, but fail-to-practice by habit. Without such mundane checklists and reminders, architects can quickly fall into software time, in which no measurable prog Ress is achieved because a lack of diligence allowed the archi-tecture to meander and violate known academic principles. It's important to realize in these retrospectives of failed projects The most cases it's ' t incompetence that drove Failure, but rather the lack of both diligence and a sense of urgency.
Diligence also requires an architect to succeed in the deceptively simple task of making and keeping commitments. These commitments is often disparate and can encompass a wide range of constraints and expectations. Examples include:
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??? Embracing the budget and time constraints of the customer
? Performing all the work that makes the architect effective and not just the work the architect enjoys
? Committing to the Process/methodology
? Accepting responsibility
Atul Gawande, in he terrific book Better:a Surgeon's Notes on performance (Metropolitan Books), speaks of diligence in T He medical community:
True success in medicine isn't easy. It requires would, attention to detail, and creativity. But the lesson I took from India were that it's possible anywhere and by anyone. I can imagine few places with more difficult conditions. Yet astonishing success could be found ... what I saw Was:better was possible. It does not take genius. It takes diligence. It takes moral clarity. It takes ingenuity. And above all, it takes a willingness to try.
Brian Hart is an executive consultant with CGI, a leading IT and business process services provider. Brian is involved in the architecture and design of the Java EE applica-tions primarily in the state and local government sector . He has been involved in the software industry since 1997.

It Takes Diligence