Roman Architecture

How the Romans Might Have Designed Software

2008/03/26 I read somewhere that the Romans had a novel approach to the hiring and firing of their architects:

As the keystone was put in place in the archway and the scaffolding was removed, they would oblige the architect to stand under the keystone. If the bridge held up, the architect was rewarded; if not, he was "terminated"...by the falling bridge.

With their lives on the line, I imagine that those Roman architects were given much authority, as befit their commensurate accountability.

But in the world of software architecture, I have been on only a couple of projects where the chief architect had such authority and accountability. I have been involved in several projects, in which the chief architect was given only token authority, or if given total authority, delegated it in such a diffuse manner, that no single person could really be held responsible for the design of the system.

Given that most of the Roman arches are still standing today, but many of those software systems collapsed and fell well before the keystone was ever put in place, I think that it is good to have your systems designed by "strong architects" - those who state what they want, boldly push it forward, and right or wrong, personally accept the consequences of the design.

Rick Fleichmann, Doug Kennedy and Rick Siegel, all formerly of Financial Data Planning Corp., as well as Steve Jobs, come to mind as "strong architects". They can be tough to work for sometimes, especially when they are standing under the keystone, but I have great respect for them as architects.