If you’ve ever been part of a protracted technical argument, you know that these can sometimes be draining and not a productive use of time.Īt Khan Academy, we’ve adopted DACI as a decision-making framework. Though I was joking about the Great Indentation Decree of May 2018, we do need coding standards to help engineers make sense of our system. Let’s talk about things that actually consume time in my day. It’s a lot more collaboration than it is dictation. For me, that evokes images of an architect handing a scroll to a messenger who then walks among the engineers declaring, “On this, the 14th of May, 2018, we hereby decree that all files shall use four spaces for indentation.”Īs a product manager for the system, I look out for ways to make things better and then work with the engineers and engineering management to make the changes come to fruition. The Wikipedia definition describes the architect as “making” the design choices and “dictating” the standards. Architects look for ways in which the system can better serve the engineers. This “system” consists of the coding standards, tools, platforms, and even processes used by the engineers on the team to build features for their users. My view is a subtle shift from that one: an architect acts as a sort of product manager for the system in which software is built. The Wikipedia article about software architects leads with this:Ī software architect is a software expert who makes high-level design choices and dictates technical standards, including software coding standards, tools, and platforms. There are many possible paths to this role, and I’ve seen quite a few definitions of it, so I thought I’d share our view of being an architect. I’ve just reached three years here, having spent time in frontend development and engineering management. John has been with Khan for seven years now, mostly focused on frontend development. Pei, Antoni Gaudí, and Oscar Niemeyer.“Architect” is a new role in Khan Academy’s engineering team this year, and my colleague, John, and I have stepped into this role. Even very important buildings may get knocked down to make way for change.įamous architects include: Frank Lloyd Wright, Fazlur Khan, Bruce Graham, Edward Durell Stone, Daniel Burnham, Adrian Smith, Frank Gehry, Gottfried Böhm, I. Architects are employed again and so the city changes. As towns and cities grow, it often becomes necessary to make roads wider, or perhaps to build a new train station. Usually building cost is what limits the life of a building, but fire, war, need or fashion can also affect things. If the design, materials and construction are good, the building should last for hundreds or even thousands of years. Some cathedrals were never finished, like Notre Dame in Paris or Sagrada Família in Barcelona.Īn architect has a very important job, because his or her work will be seen and used by many people, probably for a very long time. Some cathedrals took hundreds of years to build, so the Master Builder would die or retire and be replaced and often plans changed. Paper did not exist in Europe at this time and vellum or parchment were very expensive and could not be made in large sizes. The great European cathedrals built in the Middle Ages were designed by a Master Builder, who scratched his designs on flat beds of plaster. They should also know how to make a building attractive, so that people will enjoy using it.Īlthough there has been architecture for thousands of years, there have not always been architects. They must go to university and learn how to make a building's structure safe so that it will not collapse. Architects need to be good at math and drawing. Frank Lloyd Wright one of Stafan's workerĪrchitects decide the size, shape, and what the building will be made from.
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