I’ll add another shocker: sometimes blueprints are poorly specified and/or incorrect. And yet, people build the houses. That’s the job!
Conversely if programmers had to work like Architects they'd be paid a fraction, not get promoted to run serious projects until they are 50+, work copious unpaid overtime, not be allowed to work from home, be held legally liable for their work, spend most of their days focussing on compliance rather than outcomes, be more client focussed than they have ever considered regardless of above, etc.
Said junior usually only does this for a maximum of 10 years and graduates to owning their own business. However 85% of them graduate to running a drafter business which just draws plans.
Uh, based?
I've always been amazed that in software, you can call yourself an 'architect', 'engineer', or 'contractor' without any legal accountability. But I'm from the brick-and-mortar side of the fence.
A family member bought a plot, some blueprints for a two-story house from an architect firm and hired someone to build it.
Well into the construction, the builders asked if he would like them to raise the roof of the building by one meter, as it would be a negligible increase in cost.
He was going to reject the offer but changed his mind and accepted.
Once completed he realized that if he had rejected the offer, he wouldn't be able to use the second floor at all. The house had a Gable-style roof[1], and the stairs a U shape along one of the outer walls. Had he not raised the roof, one couldn't have walked up the stairs due to the roof being so low along the outer walls. Even after raising the roof, tall people would still need to tilt their heads going up.
The guy did get the drawings independently checked BTW, they were indeed drawn with the roof too low.
I only ever did one big renovation and built one house, but I've seen builders fixing mistakes from engineers and architects sooo many times.
Not sure if there's a type of architect that has to think about the wholistic picture including function, usability and general ergonomics. They probably cost more too.
Uh, yes it is? It's in most building codes, as well as in the IBC (International Building Code).
Architects don't deal with structural soundness; that's a misconception. That's the domain of the structural engineer. The architect IS the generalist.
Pretty much every architect I ever had to work with was like that.
Shouting “that’s the job!” when it is ostensibly not the job (whatever your experience of the “reality” of it may be) is really an implied assertion that you must make concessions in your work arrangement regardless of the explicit agreement you make with your employer when accepting a job.
The desperation to communicate this comes across, to me, as a cry for help with asserting yourself in the workplace. In my experience this is a result of a power imbalance in the employment relationship. Unfortunately the reasons for this imbalance are often extremely complex but some generic, potentially not helpful, advice for anyone in common scenarios I’ve seen would be:
1. Improve your skillset. It will help your (implied) negotiating power when they start adding more meetings or pulling you off task
2. Learn how to politely assert yourself in a work environment. We’re all playing games of imperfect information and light assertiveness and confidence can put an adversary in a position where they can’t afford to assume you’re wrong (in the moment)
3. Know what you’re signing up for and be candid about what you’re bringing to the table. If you’ve spent the last four years in intensive study of algorithms and data structures, be candid about the fact that you’re taking the job to solve computational problems. Let them know ahead of time that you’re not another head to count or butt to fill a seat.
(I 100% believe that if an architect read this article, their takeaway would be that programmers have it too easy)
- you aren't allowed to do any programming yourself, you just write a specification
- the majority of the people doing the programming are incapable of reading the specification
- many of those who can will deliberately ignore it to save money
- nevertheless, it's your fault if it's realised incorrectly
According to my brother who work in construction, architects are often clueless on how to build stuff and existing material limitation, especially with the money he's given.
Architectes are not engineers they are designers and visionaries.
You can check this video for more info:
Structural Engineer vs Architect - Design Meeting https://youtu.be/29-xtjX8rAk?si=7dupEMwy3DEbs_Yi
But anyway, no, if the house is built incorrectly, the builders are liable, not the architect.
The thing with the construction industry is that the user can "see" the frontend before, it would be like if you build the frontend and when the user accepts you build the backend.
Most of developers jobs are “here is Jira ticket build what is written there”.
You get product owners, business analysts, scrum masters that should take away 90% of BS.
But still it is not the case and a lot of those business roles seem like they are just useless and I would do much better job directly talking to the customer.
In SW they are the PM's. Without a good PM to shield you from the customers insanities you are lost. In architecture or other engineering professions it's the same. As architect you have a special man to deal with politicians and special clients, and in many other professions even with the press, who has no idea either.
Never talk directly to the customer. Or if so, you are not allowed to make promises.
You should talk to the customer to understand the problems they have, and work with them to figure out the smallest thing that might help them solve their biggest problem. Build and deliver that small thing fast, then iterate.
It's amusing but sad to see that Agile rent-seekers have managed to creep into the process once again.
And developers have bought it.
Nice but now there isn't anyone to shield us from the insanity and micromanagement of PMs.
Especially the ones who "dabble in programming every weekend".
My current company has been run into the ground because we had a salesperson in charge of product map making wild promises to customers. What they wound up settling on was a PDF report that costs us $5-$20 to make and we sell for $1!!! Utter insanity. We'll be pivoting out of necessity but we could have saved 6 months by putting someone technically competent in the role.