From Intern to Software Architect
You start your journey as an intern or junior software engineer. At this level, you care about the syntax and language constructs such as defining variables or constants correctly, writing a function that might be reusable, or constructing conditions correctly. Let's call this level - 1.
As you start to become more familiar with the language and code, your focus shifts towards the program files. Now, you start to care about files instead of language constructs as you're comfortable with syntax and language constructs. You can now connect the files across a bug fix or a change that you need to make. You're now at level - 2.
As you become more experienced, you now start to care about a module - not just a set of files but a logically related set of files. Previously, it was a set of program files only. But now you start to see program files as a module. You know the connection between files and can reason about them. You reach level - 3.
Next, you continue your journey and start seeing multiple modules all together as an app. You are not seeing the language constructs, you're not seeing a set of files, you're not seeing a module, but a set of modules all together as a whole app. You're now caring about the whole app. When you review the PRs, you are adding the whole app context to the review before you approve and merge. You're now at level - 4.
As you gain more experience, you start to see a bigger picture than the app. You're now seeing things outside of the app such as services, proxies, DNS, security, firewalls, and many surrounding services. You now not only care about the app but about these services as well, which are required for your app to be alive. You now know the exact details about how a request comes into the app and goes out through all these services. You're now at level - 5.
Your journey continues and you start to connect with other teams who manage other apps that make up the whole product. You start to see a bigger picture than the app and services. You know how apps live together, how they communicate, how they are monitored, and much more. You're now at level - 6.
I'm going to stop here at level - 6 as I think this is where the role of a software architect becomes clear and in full view. I'm not saying that the level steps stop here. But this is where I want to stop for this article discussion.
In summary, you started with syntax and reached the level where you care more about app servers, proxies, communication, security, and so on.
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Although I've used labels level 1 - 6, you can give a position you like against the levels based on the hierarchy you have seen in organizations. For example,
Level - 1 = Intern
Level - 2 = Jr. Software Engineer
Level - 3 = Software Engineer
Level - 4 = Sr. Software Engineer
Level - 5 = Principal Software Engineer
Level - 6 = Architect
Or you can combine some levels against the same position.
Level - 1, 2 = Jr. Software Engineer
Level - 3, 4 = Software Engineer
Level - 5 = Lead Software Engineer
Level - 6 = Architect
Or you can introduce more levels. For example,
Level - 3 can be divided into two parts as Software Engineer and Sr. Software Engineer, where you write software engineering with design patterns as an effective solution in the later position.
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Now, let's take a top-down look.
At level - 6, the architecture is created so well that at level - 5 you don't have to worry about other apps. At level - 5, the app is set up very well so that at level - 4 you don't have to worry about surrounding services. At level - 4, the app is created and maintained very well so that at level - 3, you don't have to worry about other modules within the app. This continues at level - 2, where the code is crafted so well that you don't have to worry at level - 1 that your minor code change will throw a module error or bring down the app or crash the product!
Layers of abstraction are added so well that at the given level, only the necessary context is required. When you're at level - 6, you don't have to care about the code of the app or module because it is taken care of at levels - 3 and 4. Similarly, at level - 2, you don't have to worry about other parts of the product as they are taken care of at a higher level. You just have to worry about a set of files.
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With the advancement of AI, the border between these levels has started to become blurred. Not between levels but between the whole range of levels. You, as level - 2, are expected to work on levels - 1 to 4, or level - 4 is required to work on levels - 3 to 6. Geniuses can jump between these levels, but lack the knowledge that only comes with experience.