The Path to Great Relationships Part #3. Architect and Project Manager

How do Architects and Project Managers divide their work to cover all corners and not step on each other’s toes?

Team cooperation is tricky, especially when it comes to leadership roles and responsibilities. How do Architects and Project Managers divide their work to cover all corners and not step on each other’s toes? How to build effective communication to deliver quality results and meet the client’s expectations?

I work as a Project Manager for the Azure Cluster CoE Critical Services team at SoftServe for the last two years. In this article, I will explain the responsibilities of Project Managers and Architects, their connection, and the power of role definition.

What makes you an Architect at SoftServe?

First thing’s first, we don’t engage in spreadsheet architecting. None of our Architects is the type to sit at a desk and update tables, lists, and presentations all day. Sure, there has to be documentation maintenance, but that’s not all we do. The Architects at our company use their technical skillset to lead their team in the solution implementation process. We prefer a hands-on approach — this way, they’re not left in the dark about the stages and phases of implementation, and they don’t hide behind their desks from risks, issues, and troubles.

Besides a technical background, we look for Architects who are highly skilled in communication. This mix is scarce and brings the highest possible value. People who can listen to the client’s needs and desires and then interpret that into a solid architecture plan are the heart of any successful project. We look for people who can sell themselves, their idea, and their company to any client. When you’re an Architect, you have a sense of ownership over the solution, and you’re responsible for each critical decision. The success of your project depends on your ability to switch between your hard and soft skills. You also need to know when to help the implementation team and when to negotiate with the client.

Unfortunately, it’s not easy to find that many well-trained professionals, so we train them ourselves. At SoftServe, we developed an incubator specifically for Architects — the Architecture Ramp-Up Program. For up to six months, we train Technical Leads to become what we consider a highly-skilled Architect. The objective is to teach the mentees a unified “Architecture Language” — how to assess the client’s desires against their financial, organizational, and technical possibilities, how to build flexible and reliable solutions based on the Carnegie Melon Architecture Based Design Method, how to write documentation based on international standards. This program was made to ensure that all Architects possess the same knowledge and skills throughout the company.

Apart from the ramp-up program, we also established an Architect’s Buddy program, where mature and experienced Architects share their knowledge and advice with their “new-born” peers. This program makes the transition much more straightforward, allowing brand-new Architects to learn tips from their mentors that they wouldn’t always find in a textbook.

Being an Architect isn’t just about telling other people what to do. It’s about being the link between the technical and business sides of the project.

What makes you a Project Manager at SoftServe?

For every technical team and goal-oriented client, there’s a Project Manager who holds everything together. The project manager's main responsibility is to organize and facilitate the scope of work for every person on the project.

Every Project Manager should strive to understand the technical side. Of course, there’s no need to ace every certification, but it’s important to know what your team is going through. For example, working with Azure DevOps experts allows me to investigate cloud infrastructure. I keep up with the project needs and, in turn, strengthen my technical knowledge. Speaking the same language as my team makes me a much stronger Project Manager in infrastructure-related projects.

Besides understanding your colleagues, you can communicate the actual state of affairs to the client. One of the worst things the Project Manager can do is promise the client something that the team can’t do or, even worse, promises that things will be done in a week. At this point, the Project Manager becomes a menace to the team, and PM’s role of facilitating and making the teammate's lives easier loses all meaning.

The main responsibility of a Project Manager is mediating between the stakeholders and the technical team. Negotiating and balancing the scales plays a critical role in every project.

Project Manager and Architect: A Dynamic Duo

The main rule of successful cooperation between the Project Manager and Architect is communication. The first thing these two people need to do is to divide their areas of responsibility, define a unified vision, set expectations for each other, and map out the results of their cooperation. Without these steps, the Project Manager and Architect are bound to tread in each other’s territory and disrupt each other’s processes.

When you divide your responsibilities, there has to be an overlap. The Project Manager has to include the Architect in the business side of things, as well as the Architect has to explain the main technical elements of the solution to the Project Manager. Apart from this, you have to decide who’s going to lead communication with the client and who’s going to assist. Usually, this is the Project Manager’s responsibility, but you should definitely discuss it instead of assuming.

Defining a unified vision doesn’t mean setting a release date and finding a venue for a teambuilding event. This incorporates everything from discussing the management style to setting up and maintaining work processes.

Architects can be involved in more than one project at once, as well as Project Managers. Discussing your availability, setting up communication channels, and defining expectations can save a lot of time in the long run. Going further, there can be few Architects involved at once. I’ve had experience with a project with three different Architects; they were responsible for Infrastructure, Big Data, and Cloud. As Project Manager, it was my job to set up areas where each Architect could lead individually and areas where they combined their efforts. Coordinating three Architects at once isn’t easy — that’s why you need to have clear expectations for each other and your work.

And lastly, we all want to call ourselves result-driven. For that to be true, you need to know your goals. This matters in communication with the client and the team. The client has its ideas and expectations, and the teammates need to know what they’re working toward.

The Agile Phenomenon

When you’re running a team, you want to make everything as structured and organized as possible. But what happens when the monitoring of your team becomes excessive? Running things by the book usually means finding a methodology that suits your purposes and implementing every idea and suggestion in the rulebook. This results in dozens of meetings every month — each with its unique purpose, but not all of them are as necessary as they seem.

When you’re a Project Manager who’s setting up meetings and choosing whom to invite, remember these rules.

• Can this meeting be an email? If yes, then write an email. Nobody wants to sit through an hour-long meeting that boils down to five minutes worth of information and fifty-five minutes of discussing the weather, pets, and vacation plans.
• Will everybody have something to say at this meeting? Maybe don’t bring the whole team to your meetings with the client if your Architect will do all the talking anyway.

Conclusion

The way to build an efficient team is to find a Project Manager who is ready to take on the business side of things and an Architect who is skilled enough to define the technical aspects. Suppose these two people communicate and divide their roles responsibly. In that case, the team will have no reason to panic and will work steadily and confidently towards excellent results.