role of a software architect

As an architect we should always focus on these areas

• Envision: Software Architecture
• Model: Design Pattern
• Blueprint: Construction and Design Principles
• Inspect: Construction Patterns
• Nomenclature: Architect Jargon to communicate intent.

Software Architecture

• Web Server? Pipelined Architectures
• Cloud? N-Tier Network Architecture
• SOA? Component Architecture
• Client/Server? Layered Architecture
• Single Tier? Monolithic Architecture

Design Pattern

• Creational, Structural and Behavioral Patterns
  • Creational DP:provide us a way to decouple the client from the objects that it needs to instantiate
    Singleton, Factory, Builder
  • Structural DP: help us to compose classes or objects into larger structures
    Decorator, Facade, Adapter, Proxy
  • Behavioral DP: dictates how classes and objects interact with each other and distribute the responsibilities
    Strategy, Template, Iterator
• Plugins: Plugins enable you to execute code in response to certain events

Design Principles

• How does Encapsulation affects code reuse? Because it hides complex code which can easily be replaced with another code.
• How cohesion affects layers? High cohesion leads to better layered design
• How coupling affects scalability? Low coupling leads to more scalability

Construction Principles

• Favor composition(component design) over inheritance as it reduces number of dependencies between the modules which increases flexibility.
  Layered and Tier Design?
• Whats your developement methodology? 3-5 week sprint based on type of project.
• How to avoid architecture erosion? Do periodic code reviews, build unit/integration tests and do a nightly builds

Architect Jargon

• CAP Theorem: Consistency Avaliability Partition-Tolerance
• ACID Properties: Atomicity Consistency Isolation Durability
• Difference between a Component and a Module? A component is fine grained selft contained entity that can interact with remaining parts of system (like Data Access Layer), whereas module is coarse grained deployable source code bundle which shares a common purpose (like JSON Parser, Log4j, etc), replacing it would not impact overall system architecture
• Difference between Tier and Layer? Tier is a physical unit, where the code / process runs. E.g.: client, application server, database server; Layer is a logical unit, how to organize the code. E.g.: presentation (view), controller, models, repository, data access.
• Cohesion and Coupling: Cohesion is the degree to which the elements of a certain module belong together. Coupling is the degree of interdependence between software modules

References:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2Ti-pZGy8I
https://nofluffjuststuff.com/n/training/2017/02/20/software_architecture_training