Four Types Of The Software Architect's Role in Product Teams

I often have the discussion about the 𝒓𝒐𝒍𝒆 of the software architect in product teams.

🔹 Is there one person 𝒕𝒉𝒆 software architect?
🔹 Is the software architect role 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒓𝒊𝒃𝒖𝒕𝒆𝒅 across the team?
🔹 How do you make architecture and technology decisions?
🔹 Who is responsible for software architecture decisions?

Based on these questions, I have tried to summarize four different types of roles that can determine the work of software architecture in a product team 👇🏼

The Benovelent Dictator

"Architect decides, Team executes" (Source)

The Architecture Owner

"Architect as just-another Dev-Team Member"

Architecture Agents

"Divide the role of the architect on the specific know-how"

Architecture Democracy

"Independent and collaborative coordination in all architectural decisions."

Which of these do you implement in your product team❓

Which do you prefer❓

By the way, in coming up with these role descriptions, I was heavily influenced by the following great blog posts and books 🙏🏻:

Buch: Vorgehensmuster für Software Architektur: Kombinierbare Praktiken in Zeiten von Agile und Lean