The Pivotal Role of Tech Leadership in Overseeing the Big Picture

The role of an individual overseeing the big picture is pivotal for a company. This role could be filled by a developer, an architect, a Head of Engineering, or a CTO. Depending on the size of the company, it’s not necessary to manage every detail personally, but it is crucial to ensure that essential tasks are completed and that you maintain a comprehensive overview of all operations.

What are the main responsibilities in that role?

Communication

Effective communication is fundamental. You must align with various parties to clearly define and understand the system’s goals. This includes:

• Product Management: Understand the vision, feature requirements, and priorities.
• Internal Stakeholders: Gather feedback from departments such as sales, marketing, and support.
• External Stakeholders: Manage relationships with third-party providers.

These interactions will significantly influence your architectural design and strategy.

Architectural Design and Strategy

Maintaining an overview of your current system is essential. Understand how the system operates and ensure that all teams are aware of the implications of any changes to their components. Up-to-date diagrams showing all connections and dependencies can be incredibly helpful. Tools like Spotify Backstage can assist in managing these complexities.

You should document the current and desired states of the system, including non-functional requirements, to align everyone’s efforts. Develop a roadmap with your architects to achieve the desired state, and synchronize this roadmap with product management.

Technical Leadership and Guidance

Lead the architecture decisively. Mentor team members by setting architectural guidelines and standards, and promote best practices in coding, testing, security, and operations. Develop two key artifacts with your teams:

• Tech Radar: Identify which technologies are in use and which are deprecated to manage the ‘Technology Zoo’.
• Development Guidelines: Define development standards, testing protocols, production behaviour, etc., to ensure a maintainable code base and minimal standards across teams.

Risk Management

Stay informed about potential risks, including technical debt, and assess their likelihood and potential impact. Address any issues that are likely to occur and could have significant consequences, not forgetting security and operational stability.

Documentation

Documentation is vital but must be clear and easy to digest. Avoid dense text walls by creating ’enjoyable documentation’ that is straightforward and helpful. Ask yourself: Is it good enough for others? Regularly review documents to ensure they are comprehensive and accessible to all team members.