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by t_luke 844 days ago
If Programmers Had to Work Like Architects

- you aren't allowed to do any programming yourself, you just write a specification

- the majority of the people doing the programming are incapable of reading the specification

- many of those who can will deliberately ignore it to save money

- nevertheless, it's your fault if it's realised incorrectly

3 comments

> If Programmers Had to Work Like Architects

According to my brother who work in construction, architects are often clueless on how to build stuff and existing material limitation, especially with the money he's given.

I get the same impression: There are many head-in-the-cloud architects who see themselves as artists. The equivalent totally exists in the software world; it's people who want to be pure "software architects", designing what others should implement. In my experience, this dictating mindset never works - designers (technical or not) should evolve their ideas with the implementors/builders, otherwise such disconnects happen.
Yes they have to work with a structural engineer for that. Just like a car designer have to work with a mechanical engineer or a product manager with an software architect.

Architectes are not engineers they are designers and visionaries.

You can check this video for more info:

Structural Engineer vs Architect - Design Meeting https://youtu.be/29-xtjX8rAk?si=7dupEMwy3DEbs_Yi

Around 15 years ago in college, a friend who was doing an architecture degree was complaining that LEED certification was making people ignore a lot of that kind of thing. That the certification was the most important thing to go for, above just about everything else.
This sounds a lot like normal software architect work at big corp. You write the spec, it gets sent off somewhere cheap, the people there lied on their CV or got their degree from a diploma mill, they will ignore your spec and make all the tests green instead of checking if they do something, and then you need to take responsibility.
Is this about software architects?

But anyway, no, if the house is built incorrectly, the builders are liable, not the architect.