The role of the architect is both one of the most challenging and one of the most misunderstood and overloaded roles in engineering. It's easy to minimize the role to simply drawing pretty pictures of boxes connecting to other boxes or a place where engineers who no longer code go to have the easy life. In reality, architects require a broad set of skill sets and strategies to be successful and effective. In this talk, we'll discuss what skillsets are important for architects (big hint they aren't all technical), common pitfalls for architects, the career path to architect, how to make effective use of architects on your teams (and whether you need one), and strategies of how to measure the impact and effectiveness of your architects.

This talk targets both engineers looking for clarity on an architecture career path and also for managers and leaders who want to make more effective use of architects on their teams.