On identifying the skills needed for software architects

Abstract

This position paper claims that software architects need a unique set of skills that may be difficult to gain solely from academic qualifications and/or training courses. We believe that socio-cognitive factors and artifacts with which software engineers work have a vital role in identifying the skill-set for software architects. Based on social cognitive theory and an artifact-centric framework, we have designed an instrument to investigate the skills needed by software architects. We believe that such an instrument will enable researchers and practitioners to gather the skill-set information by considering the personal traits of software architects, their behaviors, and the organization they work in together with the artifacts they use. This paper explains how the different concepts of social cognitive theory and an artifact-centric framework can stimulate discussion with software architects in order to gather information about their skills. We also briefly describe our experience of using this instrument in a pilot study.