Cay Hasselmann

As an architect you are an emotional being, however most architects see themselves more of an objective personality, while they often find that other architects are far too emotional. This is nothing special and occurs with all professions that have a tendency for objectivity. This pattern is referred to as the hot-cold empathy gap or … Continue reading The emotional architect →

Most architects easily forget that there is a mental impact on the people that will use our systems. The main influence here is usually called the automation-induced complacency or over-reliance on automation. We as human have the strange behaviour that we will always favour information from an automated system over all other information. An easy … Continue reading Psychological Impact of Solution Architecture →

Everyone likes to look good and most work in any company by any decision maker is to ensure to look good. Usually lower end decision maker make no decision and as such avoid looking bad, but for those that want to get to the top have to excel in all areas so they need  a … Continue reading Scapegoating →

The analysis I am after here is the understanding what is wanted and what is needed and how to express this schism and document it in a way that others can understand. Usually a lot of people such as architects will constantly ask for the requirements without being clear if they want to know what … Continue reading The importance of analysis →

All people that are working within the strategy execution such as architects will always struggle with the intent of the strategy or the intent of the person who represents the strategy. If the strategy is backed by a group it may even be that the intent is contradictory in some or all points. No group … Continue reading Capture the intent →

In agile you do user stories, they are a kind of to-do items for developer instead of the traditional analysis and those stories are discarded after the work is done. Architecture on the other hand is design done after a long and solid analysis with the view to stay. Architecture is to translate into standards, … Continue reading Agile is transient – Architecture is to stay →

When I am arguing for an architect not being a team player I am not proposing him to be a sociopath, as that is what most people associate with not being a team player. Instead I will look at the most common traits of a team player and demonstrate how they inhibit an architect of … Continue reading Why an architect should NOT be a team player →

First it is fair to give a definition. Sycophancy is flattery that is very obedient, or an indication of deference to another, to an excessive or servile degree. I recently read articles on establishing architects in all areas of engineering. During the period of 1833 -1854 one of these attempts is well document in the … Continue reading Sycophancy as the architect’s downfall →

On computer architecture flags have always played a substantial role, as well in certain application development. Since most data and business architecture was done on a batch principle mainly driven by the limitation in technology, flag also got used in a lot of solution architecture. The problem in all areas is that despite of new … Continue reading The Flag Application Architecture torment →

The first thought on documentation is that it is boring, but somehow necessary. And just this is the start of the downfall as documentation for documentation sake is a bad idea and usually helps no one. The really important part of documentation is about sharing information and the really difficult part of information sharing is … Continue reading Documentation →

As humans we usually like as little change as possible in our life (the only change we want is with others, e.g. in a TV drama). Additionally we are very risk adverse so we only really want proven options. This tendency increases with age is often called the conservative tendency. As our and almost all … Continue reading Productivity as the only driver on architecture →

When you are employed as an architect there are some areas you need to be aware are key, but are classified as “No-go areas”. As with physical “No-go areas” usually you will have to ask others to find out about them as they are seldom advertised. However “No-go areas” in architecture are seldom physical. A … Continue reading “No-go areas” for architects →