The Lost Art of Software Architects

Traditional approaches to software architecture usually trigger thoughts of ivory tower dictators who are a long way removed from the process of building software, probably because they no longer write code any more. This unfortunate stereotype of “architecture astronauts” delivering large design documents to the development team before running away to cause havoc elsewhere has unfortunately resulted in a backlash against having a dedicated architect on a software development team, particularly in environments where teams are striving to be autonomous and self-organising. But, in 2022, is having a dedicated software architect still useful, or are there better ways to fulfil this role? The answer, as usual, is "it depends”.