Travel as I wait

Gunilla Hammarberg, not only my boss but also a rock-solid engineer, said something I'll steal: "Architecture is an activity rather than an artifact". Why is this so obvious but still not?

For me it is clear that this is the correct mental picture but still it is not obvious that this is how it works.

When we use processes that says something like "by gate X you should deliver document Y" people tend to focus on getting that document done, or? Especially since in many companies we build up a very large organization to check that document Y actually was delivered by gate X. If the people chasing the document is stronger than the persons behind them it don't take long until the authors are bullied into a document factory. When it comes to architecture I think it takes strong personalities to see through this and to get acceptance in their respective organization to shift focus.

Don't get me wrong, I don't say stop writing that System Architecture Description but shift focus. Spend 20% on the artifact and 80% on activity instead of the other way around.

When looking at it from the Lean angle architecture as an activity becomes even more clear. The quite common artifact-driven organization is a easy example of a "push" system and even though a lot of SAD:s are good documents it doesn't take long to identify a lot of Mura, Muri & Muda - or waste.

@"Travel as I wait": Since I know that a Philosophy-student (click and listen, he's not only philosophical but also an excellent musician) is reading this I might as well educate him a bit:
Lean Software Development in brief(s)