How do you keep your software architecture skills and knowledge up to date and relevant?

Reading books and blogs is a hobby, not a learning strategy. You can read as many books and blogs as you want, but they will not make you a better software architect. Even more important... it can be a waste of your time, as they are often outdated, inaccurate, or biased. You can learn more from doing than from reading. You should focus on building your own projects, experimenting with different technologies and architectures, and learning from your own mistakes and successes. You should also seek feedback from your colleagues and customers, as they are the ones who will use and evaluate your software architecture.

Read and Research: Follow industry blogs, journals, and books. Engage in Communities: Join forums and social media groups. Experiment: Apply new technologies in projects. Attend Events: Go to conferences and meetups.

The best way is to code. Build things. This has worked for me. Now, don't go coding in your team's code base but keep your code seperate. Nothing should rely on it. Your code is educational. For yourself and for others. A tool to communicate ideas as well. So, when you keep coding you will continuously learn about new ways of solving problems and thus keep up to date.

To keep a well-rounded and up-to-date knowledge base in software architecture through online learning platforms, videos, and podcasts: 1. Prioritize high-quality and relevant content from recognized sources. 2. Establish a regular schedule for engaging with the material and applying insights to practical projects. 3. Reflect on how this media enhances professional growth and adjust the learning strategy accordingly. 4. Integrate these resources into a broader learning regimen, including various platforms.

To me, this is the same as reading blogs or books. It can be useful, as long as you're critical of the quality. Knowledge alone doesn't get the result. It needs to be put into action. So it's a starting point, but don't stop there and get your hands dirty to apply what you've learned.

Identifying knowledge gaps, selecting reputable programs that align with the latest industry developments, such as cloud technologies and DevOps, enrolling in relevant courses, and obtaining certifications are essential to keeping our software architecture skills current. A comprehensive learning path requires covering foundational and advanced subjects, prioritizing practical, hands-on applications, and consistently updating certifications as technologies advance. Additionally, it must align educational endeavors with career objectives, seek employer support for professional development, and engage with peers and mentors for enhanced learning and understanding.

To stay current with software architecture skills through industry events, follow these steps: 1. Choose to attend conferences and workshops pertinent to emerging trends. 2. Actively participate in discussions, workshops, and networking to exchange ideas and gain insights from peers and experts. 3. Review new knowledge, apply it to daily work, and share it with others.

Joining communities, webinars, conferences, and other events is a good way to keep up to date and keep alive our love for software. These are extremely important to read current trends in the industry, but most importantly to network with other peers. As I mentioned in other sections, gaining experience is vital for our function. However, the experience we can accumulate as individuals is extremely limited. Joining other experts and peers in the sectors allows us to share knowledge and gain insights which we would probably never encounter in our professional life. It is also a good way to keep engaged and motivated. The exposure to new concepts prevents us from becoming lazy and adopting always the same solutions over and over again.

You learn way more when you're learning from practical experiences of 10 people in a group than from a course. It's good to be part of relevant communities and slack groups where there is healthy discussion about new technology and architecture happening. You learn about their practical insights, what worked, what didn't, and new approach. Attending events is a bigger and more practical experience of it. You can update yourself with upcoming trends too.

My architecture team is always doing experiments with different design architectures, comparing the pros and cons. We have recently compared AWS Lex 2.0 with RASA 3.0, comparing cost, product features, and otherwise all the points for AWS's well-architected design.

Eu particularmente gosto muito de estudar casos de usos e estudar usando problemas reais , assim que consigo estruturar ideias e ferramentas que estejam aderentes para resolver determinados problemas. Ouvir cases de outras empresas me ajuda a ver novos horizontes e entender novas formas de pensar sobre um determinado assunto. Mas no geral, n?o há nada melhor que a prática.

To keep software architecture skills up-to-date and compelling, follow these steps: 1. Engage in various projects using different technologies and scales, including personal and open-source projects. 2. Participate in hackathons and online challenges to enhance problem-solving skills. 3. Contribute regularly to open-source initiatives to gain experience working with diverse teams and large-scale systems. 4. Teach to deepen understanding. 5. Consider mentoring and sharing knowledge through writing. 6. Regularly seek feedback from peers and users to improve practices and adapt learning strategies based on these insights.

Practicing is important. Musicians practise. Athletes practice. Speakers practise. We should practice too. Sometimes, however, we describe something as practicing that it is not. Simply playing around with something is not practicing. Trying something out is not practicing. Practicing is targeted. A musician practices for a performance, for example. They focus on the pieces for the performance and other things they need for it. We should do the same. Experiments can support this.

Putting to test what we learnt is essential to sharpen our skills but most importantly gain experience. Architecture is about trade-offs. There is no silver bullet that we can use in all situations. We need to be able to read each scenario and adapt our architectural choices accordingly and the only way to do that is to experiment continuously. Side projects or proof of concepts are good ways to get to know new patterns and technologies. However, we also need to test our ideas in production. To limit risk, we can select guinea pig projects or portions of the system that are well decoupled and have limited impact on end users. This way we will gain invaluable feedback and refine our understanding of software and all its intricacies.

Personal/ soft skills are something to develop. As an architect you need lots of them, especially when you want to ride the architect elevator up to the penthouse and down to the engine room!

I work with more than 10 major and a few minor technology vendors. For example, we have an Enterprise service account with AWS. We are notified by our Technical Account Manager about new releases from time to time. Our vendors schedule review sessions for new releases which helps us to stay up to date. Beyond that, I come to know about new architectures and products during Request for Proposal events. I go through all proposals in great detail. I ask them questions when I see anything new in the proposal.

I highly dislike architects who pass down directives from their Silver citadels, based mainly on the next best shiny thing. Being able to fight in the trenches, so to speak, like the developers implementing the prescribed architecture stimulates learning and acceptance, which in turn improves quality.