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In a year of rapid digitalization and unprecedented automation, if there is anything almost single-handedly running the world today, it’s ‘software’. Organizations, companies, and people can’t survive and grow without robust enough software as their backbone. But this ‘software’ does not pop about on its own. It has to be mapped, architected, cultivated, and steered well. That’s a job that is crucial and indispensable in today’s age. And that’s where software architects come in.
Role and need for a software architect
With a software architect, any software can be developed, tested, and deployed efficiently. A software architect molds it as per the requirements of a function, the needs of a problem, and the user’s expectations. With software design and development expertise, a software architect can translate a basic plan or problem area into a concrete solution in the form of software – laying down the path and directions for developers, application experts, testers, QA specialists, and users.
A software architect handles multiple roles- spanning technical and programming areas and collaborating with various experts and stakeholders in the software. This person makes critical design and technical choices, pick what tools and features would be relevant, and give overall direction to the application project. In addition, a software architect makes decisions on strategy and puts in guidelines for coding, tools, and platforms, thus, streamlining the development process.
A software architect designs the system’s blueprint – outlining its components, interfaces, scalability, functionality, security, performance, and interactions with external systems. A development team then translates this blueprint into an application and the needed features. Next, the architect sets the vision and strategy. Finally, the developers and other groups start after this vision is put into a concrete map and flow.
The software architect, hence, needs to be very proficient in all core software architecture areas – this means one should have a fundamental knowledge of coding, software development, programming, testing, quality control, deployment, and troubleshooting. But a software architect must also be well-versed in communication, team management, project management, time management, collaboration, and people management, especially in areas like tool selection, task allotment, SDLC phases of the project, requirement analysis from clients, DevOps and software improvement. Many other hard and soft skills will empower anyone to pursue the domain of software architecture as a career choice. And it would be an intelligent choice to make too.
Demand for software architects
This job was always in-demand, but its opportunities and prospects have increased explosively in the recent past. Recent surveys suggest that software architects have remained top earners for the second consecutive year. Moreover, software architects have been beating cloud architects and product managers to stay top earners in the sector, according to a report by TeamLease Digital.
Even on the compensation and growth front, the outlook is very promising. The salary of software architects with 2-6 years of experience ranged between ₹13 lakh and ₹47 lakh, marking a 30 percent jump over the previous year. The software architecture domain has been shown as the highest-paid IT job in India for two years. Moreover, we can observe that their demand is rising considerably, especially in emerging domains like Cloud.
According to a report from Nasscom, the need for cloud technology professionals was slated to reach 2 million by 2025. As of FY2021, India ranked third with 608,000 cloud professionals. It was pointed out that with a more aggressive talent-building roadmap (over 30 percent growth rate), India can bolster its cloud talent pool to 1.7-1.8 million and become the world’s second-largest cloud talent hub. But skilling at scale needs to be the top priority, as this report suggested.
Time to up-skill and re-skill in software architecture
With massive investments in digital transformation, new technologies, and applications, a software architect’s demand and significance are only going to climb ahead. To tap this tremendous opportunity, one needs to have the right toolkit of skill, competencies, and experience under one’s belt.
Something that an Advanced Certificate Program in Software Architecture from Carnegie Mellon University SCS can firmly provide. It is a proven and holistic program that covers all the necessary layers of software architecture while arming candidates with the requisite soft skills and exposure in this domain.
The beauty of this program is that it allows its learners to understand this field under the wings of real experts and pioneers, including successful authors, research paper champions, and pioneers of the software architecture field. For instance, the frontrunners of software architecture evolution like David Garlan and Bradley Schmerl have done path-setting work through their academic research, projects, and publications in this domain. The participants of this program get an opportunity to learn from them.
This program also takes a unique cohort-based approach to drive effective learning with an illustrious global peer group. It is highly experiential and runs on a robust hands-on format supported by assessments, team projects, and capstones. It allows and encourages its learners to understand the technical, organizational, and business role of a software architect, identify critical architectural structures, and evaluate the architectural design.
The program enables them to grasp the impact of open source and third-party components and to leverage better growth opportunities as software architects. With the prestigious SCS – Carnegie Mellon University Certification, candidates can walk out of this program with never-before confidence and a ready stamp in their pocket for attractive opportunities. They would build hard-core expertise in global software architecture practices, network with distinguished faculty and international peers, and access solid career opportunities with Career Accelerator.
So if you are aspiring to transition into software architecture as a career, or if you are a software developer looking forward to career acceleration, or even a product manager with a software engineering background – it’s time to pause and reflect on where the world is moving to. And change your gears. Take the next best step toward a promising future. Be ready when opportunity strikes. And be there.
