Link: http://www.etc-architect.com/?p=356
From ETC-Architect
I am not sure where you life, but nearly everywhere I go people complain about potholes in the streets. After looking into it, in three different countries I see that each country is spending more on potholes than 20. Years before; with very little to show in terms of good streets. This really puzzled me until an architect wrote to me with the answer; as he explained that today we know much more about potholes, their locations, their size, how much they grow than 20 years ago. Actually most countries produce detailed pothole maps. So in essence today we spend 80 % of the pothole budget in examination of the ‘as is’ and only a fifth in actual repaid. However ,the repairs that are done have a clear reason and are consulted upon and the roads will deteriorate more until new streets are build (different budget).
When doing architecture in many places the same pattern emerges not to spend on clear need and useful improvements, but to first make decisions when we know everything and as such there are many architects that spend their time only examining the present without moving forward. Like always the motivation is the fear to do something wrong. However 20 years of ‘as is’ is usually more than enough to cripple a lot of businesses, so they then start in a mad agile development without any architectural considerations to try to salvage as much as possible.
This pattern of first analysing to death followed by a frenetic activity with no plan at all is often down to missing architecture input to.Here it is important for architects to stand up and clearly present options that are not focusing too much on the ‘as is’, as management only choses between options presented.
