The Architect’s Mindset

Abstract

Software architecture and software architecture practices become increasingly important for information systems since they enable reasoning on the design of the system. The concept of architectural knowledge, i.e. architectural design decisions and the resulting design, plays a pivotal role in architecture. In order to get the most out of architectural knowledge, we need insight into the ways in which architectural knowledge is used. Currently, we lack this insight. We performed survey-based research in the Netherlands to collect feedback on the importance of architectural knowledge for the daily work of practitioners in architecture. We present our findings using two perspectives: the architectural roles practitioners fulfill and the architecture level practitioners are engaged in. We use these perspectives to construct and reflect on the architect’s mindset on architectural knowledge. This mindset of architects reveals an approach which is focused on ‘to create and communicate’ rather than ‘to review and maintain’ an architecture.