The Path to Becoming an Accidental Architect

Drupal is a really fantastic platform for developing cool and complicated things, but the problem with making cool and complicated things is that if you haven't thought about how build them beforehand, you can end up backed into a corner, with every change to your project being expensive and difficult.

Software architecture is the solution to that problem!

The Drupal architect is the big picture person who listens, thinks, and sets plans in motion. They listen to the customer's needs, then translate those into technical solution possibilities, weigh options on how things will work together, with an eye towards the future, and then create a plan on how to implement those possibilities into Drupal solutions that will keep costs and technical debt down while ensuring flexibility for future changes.

So, do you want to be that person? Do you already find yourself thinking about these things, are people already asking you these questions? Have people stopped handing you coding tasks, and instead started expecting you to provide the coding solution?

This session will help you find your way in the transition between Drupal developer and Drupal architect. You will find effective strategies to improve your soft-skills, be able to identify and understand the benefits of some different architectures, and when we are done, you will walk away with some great resources, and with some new directions of thinking of what it means to be a Drupal architect.

I will answer these questions:

• What is an architect?

• How does the role of Drupal architect differ from the many other types of architects?

• Am I an architect right now?

• How can I move from developer to architect?

• What skills are needed to be a great Drupal architect?

• How do you Architect in an Agile approach?

• How does a Architect differ from the Lead Developer?