Soft Skills for Architects
A critical set of skills for the effective Enterprise Architect and Business Architect
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Why Soft Skills

How soft skills training can help.

Do you have a team with technical acumen but have problems with inter-personal communications, team building, and conflict resolution?

The work of an architect is challenging indeed.

It requires a strong set of analytical and organizational skills and tools. But it also requires one to be able to navigate an organization to find the right people, engage them in the effort and then tap their thinking and understanding. It requires the ability to bring together people with different views to create shared views. Simply put, the architect must be able to lead people to be successful.

What are “soft skills”?

This term is often associated with a set of behaviors and traits that relate to an individual’s ability to interact with other people, whether it be one-on-one or in a group. Examples of soft skills include: communications, team building, and conflict resolution. In many organizations, soft skills are contexted by the culture and desired behaviors of the organization. Soft skills are contrasted with “hard skills” that describe capabilities needed to perform tasks, such as industry expertise and process knowledge.

We’ve observed over the years that the soft skills are just as important, perhaps even more important, than the hard skills.

An architect may have mastered the process, tools, and templates for developing architectures. However, it’s impossible to develop an architecture in a vacuum. Without the necessary interpersonal skills, the architect will not be successful in engaging the right people, understanding their perspectives, and then building a framework that will be purposefully used by the organization.