Everybody within an organization needs to take a cyber security first approach to everything they do and every decision they make. Organizations have rolled out very basic cyber security awareness training that’s required pretty regularly, but I’ve found that the […]
Architecture
Establishing Effective Architecture Practices
in recent articles, I’ve written about good and bad practices as well as what could be conceived as bad practices or anti-patterns coming from architects. At face value, it’s not the full story and may only be a few aspects, […]
Architecture Strategy for Meeting Performance NFRs within a Digital Transformation
Identifying your most important NFRs is important as early as possible in your digital transformation journey. Good architects make sure there are no disconnects here. “Performance” is one such NFR that requires a broad and clear understanding across your entire […]
Architects, Blind Spots, and Things That Go Wrong
A good architect can see how something would work and also how it might not work. It’s the gaps and the blind spots in a seemingly good architecture that will completely de-rail an entire program. Gaps in an architecture sometimes […]
Overcoming Confirmation Bias
When we need to make decisions it is temping to interpret, favour, and recall information that conforms to pre-existing beliefs or hypotheses. This is universally known as ‘confirmation bias’ and if not left in check leads to faulty decision making […]
An Architect Must Be A Fiduciary
Although they are not typically bound by a regulatory body, Enterprise and Solution Architects should always take on a fiduciary responsibility and commitment to the organizations they work and partner with — this especially goes for consultants, recruiters, and professional […]
Clearing up Disaster Recovery and Business Continuity Confusion
As I work with different teams, there is often some confusion about what people mean when they say “DR”. Team discussions will delve into RPO, RTO, Backup, High Availability, and Business Continuity. Unfortunately, these concepts get mixed up and confused […]
Setting Yourself Up to Become a Solution Architect
There are a few different path’s I’ve seen people take to grow into architecture roles, and many people will grow into an architect role from more senior technical SME roles (senior developer, development leader, infrastructure leader, etc). It’s not always […]
Evaluating Solution Architect Competence – 10 Indicators
For solution architects to be effective and to succeed there are specific competencies that are crucial. These competencies become even more crucial as architects evolve from technical roles to solution architect, senior solution architect, and principal architect. Perhaps you are […]
Bad Security Practices Pushing the Citizenry into the Arms of Bad Actors (GC)
Over the last few weeks, my wife and I have been helping complete a Canadian tourist visa application for a family member. It’s long and it’s tedious but we expected that. We get to a point in the application process […]