My own journey from developer to solution architect began many years ago when I realized my calling was on the professional development path. These days one of my titles is “SAP Global Architect” – perhaps a rather grandiose term for a role which is now roughly 80-90% solution architecting and 10-20% developer.
Plus with the increasing move into Cloud solutions, many of us believe that there will be greater need of solution architects and far less need of traditional developer/programmers, due to the very nature of how cloud solutions are structured. Even if that’s not true in your workplace, adding solution architecting to developer skills can be an excellent way to expand your role, and increase your value to current and future employers. However, rightly or wrongly, in many workplaces the role of solution architect is more highly valued than that of a developer. I want to be very clear that what I am NOT saying is that a solution architects are better than developers – that would be palpably untrue as a quick look at the careers of many of our SCN members alone would show. Many solution architects, like myself, come from a developer background. I’m writing this blog for anyone who is interested in growing their IT professional skills, and particularly those who see are interested in making solution architecting a greater part of their role. It’s a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get.Īrnold Palmer, legendary American professional golfer