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by lioeters 2573 days ago
> real architects have regulations to follow

True, and the same goes for engineers. I suppose the latter is another metaphor for the software development process/person: "..people who invent, design, analyse, build, and test machines, systems, structures and materials".

> need to keep up with evolving trends

This sounds like it could apply to much of software field, esp. web frontend.

> Maybe a journalism metaphor would be better

Good one! Software is definitely an art/science of writing, and about media, publishing too.

I also agree about the need for many "drafts", writing and rewriting. The metaphor might help stakeholders understand the process better, compared to architecture which gets built only once (usually).

I like how you chose journalism, and not just writing or literature. Journalism is associated with marketing/advertising, in which software is definitely involved. There's also the parallel of research and investigation being necessary preparation.

For the fun of it, I thought of flipping the direction of metaphor.

An architect is like a software developer, except their code is physical material and their runtime is space.

A journalist is like a software developer, except their code is human language and their runtime is the public mind..?