Personality

The role of Solution Architect requires more personal interaction than other technical roles. You’ll need a blend of skills drawn from technical, personal, business and other domains. Some expertise within the domain of your business is also a near prerequisite for most work.

Am I good enough to be here? Others seem smarter, better communicators, know more and are just calmer. Have I taken on too much? I feel like a fraud who is about to be caught out any day.

These are all obvious things to point out. However reinforcement of them is worth the airtime. We’ll use this section to provide techniques and tips which will accelerate your reaching a strong level of comfort in being a Solution Architect.

It would be easy to simply list the, likely well understood, personality traits required to be an effective, well balanced, happy Solution Architect. I did that on the first draft of this book. However it is tardy treatment of a hugely important topic, especially when there is useful detail that can be drawn out on some areas. So, rather than bullet point list personality traits that are useful/necessary let us give some rationale and practical advice on the topic.