OutSystems and Microsoft Low Code Changes and Architecture Career
My perception of changes in the low code industry says that big players are investing heavily to take process automation to a new level. OutSystems released case management in its early access program and announced a partnership with Workato. Microsoft made its move too extending PowerApps to Dynamics 365 and rebranded Flow to Power Automate. Microsoft still has Azure and Office tools and intent to invest highly to improve productivity in its products.
All these moves will impact on the type of professional that will handle this changes and today is possible to see the impact in the LinkedIn. Microsoft is looking for Power Platform Global Black Belt Specialists and OutSystems for Senior Technical Success Managers. Both professionals have the same goal: provide the full value of company products and solutions across the global customer enterprise. Some knowledge of Lean Six Sigma will be useful for them and more importantly is the way the employee will contribute to the change in the companies. Below I detail 3 possible opportunities across IT Architecture.
Enterprise architect
The enterprise architect is responsible to oversee the entire corporate tech ecosystem and usually uses a framework for that. According to Science Direct (Pragmatic Enterprise Architecture), there are over 50 frameworks that are labeled enterprise architecture framework but the main focus here will be Togaf, Zachman framework and DODAF .
Zachman is a framework of elements that visualizes the entire company at one glance. With an array of 6 x 6 it defines the scope of all content an information could be at specific context. The context vary according to the perspectives(rows) and abstractions(columns). For instance, Cell [3,1] (System model(logical) — Data) must contain only the logical data model and nothing else. Zachman is the first framework to approach Enterprise Architecture and more information about it can be get here
The Open Group Architecture Framework more known by its acronym TOGAF standard, provides the methods and tools for assisting in the acceptance, production, use, and maintenance of Enterprise Architectures. It is based on an iterative process model supported by best practices and a re-usable set of existing architectural assets. Its most important part is the Architecture Development Method (ADM) and as a process it can be complementary to the Zachman framework according mapping here. For deep information about TOGAF access here.
From 1986 to 1999 the US Department Of Defense created the Technical Architectural Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) that was used as reference to create the TOGAF. Parallel in 1994 they started the development of the C4ISR Framework which evolved into the Department Of Defense Architecture Framework(DODAF). DODAF is especially suited to large systems with complex integration and interoperability challenges and it was used as reference to create the MODAF (The UK Ministry of Defence Architecture Framework). At the time of writing this article the actual release uses the DODAF Meta-Model(DM2). DM2 provides information needed to collect, organize, and store data in a way easily understood and is founded upon the International Defence Enterprise Architecture Specification (IDEAS) as a formal ontology foundation developed by the defense departments and ministries of the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and Sweden in coordination the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Solution Architect
Gartner defines Solution Architecture as an architectural description of a specific solution. Solution Architectures combine guidance from different enterprise architecture viewpoints (business, information and technical), as well as from the enterprise solution architecture. Therefore, the solution architect is the person in charge of leading the practice and introducing of overall technical vision for a particular solution.
Software Architect
The architecture of a system is a comprehensive framework that describes its form and structure — its components and how they fit together (Jerrold Grochow). The software architect(SA) is responsible for creating a responsive and resilient system taking design decisions according to system requirements and the architecture is the mean for that.
Architecture can bring many benefits from different perspectives. Reuse, for example, comes from a system general view where is possible to identify common behaviour that will originate components. Reuse will impact on quality. Once you test one component, it is like every shared component is tested at the same time.
Predictability comes from the analysis and definition of technology to use in the beginning. Definition in advance reduces system complexity and allows to know the future system behaviour avoiding complementary development. The last but not the least, is the cost savings. The company will save money due to the decreased number of bugs, rework and quick delivery of new features to the customers.
Conclusion
Low code is changing towards a new level of process improvement automation and the IT professional needs to adapt himself/herself to follow up the changes. Architecture can focus on different levels of organisation and contribute to improve process productivity in a very rational “planned” way.
For me architecture is the “planning” part of a system. It is analog to the planning in the project management and can be weird to say this but, even telling all benefits of “planning”, I already heard people from companies saying that architecture and project management is a waste of time. However, it is a consensus that everybody likes the results they bring to the projects. They didn’t understand the relationship between the “ planning” and the results, but as I used to say: everybody likes the results but nobody likes the taste of medicine. It is bitter.
