I started my career off on the helpdesk, customer support.
The more I advanced in technical skill and understanding, the further away from the customer I seemed to move.
By the time I was engineering platforms and building multiple environments, I ended up surrounded by tech, standards, languages and infrastructure. And the closest people I would deal with, having "stakes" in my work were other internal teams, who were managing software that was eventually customer facing.
And as you evolved as an engineer, you begin to realise the coordination between components of the infrastructure, between teams and software at the application and platform layer evolved and accelerated the need to understand the operation, challenges and drivers of other teams and their products (encased in technology) is crucial to running an efficient and effective ship.
But a ship to where?
It's a ship to a business outcome. It feels like a bit of a Scooby Do reveal moment, that it was business all along. But after you boil it all down, after the marketing sheen has faded, and the 'all hands' buzz has died down, we sit back down at our desks, and complete the tasks that has the single purpose, of delivering the business outcomes we are here to do.
The final stage of your evolution arrives through ever increasing complexities and variables, drivers both technical, human resource, financial and economic dynamics, to deliver the business outcome...
Who are these business outcomes for?
Who they've always been for. The customer. The consumer. The end "user".
You are now the Architect.