Skills are important to do any job well. But having the right competencies is just as crucial. The key question is: which is preferred, a skilled architect or a competent one?

To answer this and related questions, we must first clarify some peripheral issues. Skills and competencies are often associated with a job position. But there is also a whole world of meaning and thought behind a job function. Let’s start by clarifying that.

Jobs, Roles and Assignments

In everyday practice, we often talk about jobs, roles, and assignments. Although you might say that these are fairly self-contained terms, there is some ambiguity about them. To properly understand the difference between jobs, roles, and assignments, it is essential to clarify these terms, as they can be used in multiple, sometimes overlapping contexts. The Series Guide ‘Architecture Roles and Skills’ of the TOGAF Standard defines them as follows:

• Job: The formal position someone holds, usually defined by a contract of employment. Usually the position is related to the hierarchical positioning in the organization.
• Role: The expected set of activities, typically tied to a specific skill set.
• Assignment: A specific task or project a person is responsible for, often within the scope of their job and role, though not exclusively.

Although the TOGAF Standard makes an excellent attempt to clarify the distinction between jobs, roles and assignments, there is still little consensus about architecture roles in day-to-day practice. For example, in many organizations today, it is still unclear whether the term Enterprise Architect refers to a job or a role. Partly because of this continuing ambiguity, organizations are not well equipped to properly position the profession of architecture within the contours of their own organization. As a result, architecture as a discipline is still invariably viewed as part of the IT department. Being part of IT requires different skills and competencies than being part of a strategic team that translates business strategy into execution.

Core Architecture Roles

The TOGAF Standard describes three core architecture roles. These three core roles are the Enterprise Architect, Segment Architect, and the Solution Architect. Each of these roles performs its own part of the architecture work.

• The Enterprise Architect focuses primarily on the more strategic aspect of the profession.
• The Segment Architect details and refines the specific (architecture or business) domains.
• The Solution Architect plays the crucial role of developing the details of the proposed solutions.

Every architect who performs one of the three core architectural roles mentioned above must have not only the skills, but also the right competencies to perform the tasks properly. Unfortunately, a list of competencies an architect must have is exactly what is missing from the TOGAF Standard.

Difference between Skills and Competencies

Before explaining what skills and competencies are needed to properly fill an architecture role, it is necessary to explain the difference between the two. A skill is a stand-alone entity, while a competency consists of three parts: skills, knowledge, and abilities.

• Skill: Specifies very specifically what a person should be able to do. The description is similar to a set of activities.
• Knowledge: Often, knowledge is required to perform the tasks properly. This knowledge can be taught or learned.
• Ability: This refers to the ability to perform the task or set of activities. A proper posture is a requirement here.

Other words can be used instead of knowledge and ability. For example, think of experience instead of knowledge, or attitude instead of ability. Many other combinations are possible. The point here is that competencies say much more about what an architect needs or should be able to do than skills alone.

A Merchant’s Tale

For example, consider a market merchant who sells apples.

The merchant needs to be able to quickly calculate the cost of a kilogram of apples of a particular variety costs, and he needs to do this several times a day. He will also need the skill to estimate how many apples are needed to make a kilo.

In addition to these skills, knowledge of the products he sells is also important. For example, the merchant must be able to tell which type of apple is sweeter than the others, or which characteristics apply to which type. Knowledge of the products is essential.

Finally, the merchant must know how to sell the apples. Selling one’s wares requires a certain amount of finesse in dealing with (potential) customers. A certain boldness is desirable, as is the ability to credibly convey the message that this vendor is the cheapest and best apple seller on the market. This is what is meant by ability or attitude.

Back to Reality

The example above clearly shows the difference between skills (calculate how much a kilo of apples of a certain variety costs), product knowledge (the different types of apples and their characteristics), and ability or attitude (actually being able to sell the products). Skills, knowledge, and ability together make up a competency. In the example of the market merchant, this would be the competence of attracting customers to make a purchase.

An architect’s competencies work in a similar way. For example, an architect needs the ability to model and also needs sufficient knowledge of architectural design. He or she must also have the ability or attitude to explain and communicate architecture to others. The ability to work with stakeholders is another necessity. In terms of competencies, this would tie in with communication and collaboration.

Architecture Competencies

Recently, I shared a post on LinkedIn showing the ten competencies I believe are applicable to the three core architecture roles mentioned in the TOGAF Standard. I mapped the competencies to these core architecture roles. The result is shown in the figure below.

However, having a list of competencies is not enough – they need to be measured against the skills. Therefore, I also created the figure below. In it, I have mapped the skills from the TOGAF Standard against the ten competencies.

Plotting the table of competencies and architecture roles against the table of skills and competencies gives a good picture of all the skills and competencies that each core architecture role needs or should be able to possess.

Of course, there are other sources that are often referenced. One of the most commonly used is the SFIA website. On this site you can find a wide range of (lists of) skills. However, as the previous sentence suggests, these are actually lists of skills, not competencies. Like the TOGAF Standard, a website like the SFIA’s does not provide a solution for finding competencies.

Conclusion

In summary, the TOGAF Standard provides a nice overview of the necessary skills an architect should have. The framework even has a mapping of skills to the three core architecture roles. However, it lacks an overview of competencies.

Competencies are broader than skills alone. A competency consists of a skill, a piece of knowledge, and one or more abilities. The whole together is a competency. I believe that simply stating the required skills does not ensure that an architect is sufficiently competent to do his or her job properly. Having the right competencies is essential.

Think back to the market merchant for a moment. Being able to calculate how much a kilo of apples costs, being able to list the characteristics of a particular variety, and actually selling the apples together is what is required. Possessing only the skill of calculating what a kilo of apples costs does not make the market merchant successful.

So, my conclusion is that competencies are very much needed, and having skills alone is not enough. That is why a competent architect is preferred to a skilled one every day.