I often work with start-ups on a volunteer or consultancy basis and the number one task on many of their agendas is building their product. It’s understandably an exciting time because things are finally starting to feel real.
But sadly, many start-ups are either forgetting or purposefully skipping a critical step: architecture.
Now, unfortunately, the term “architecture” is not well understood by most business people. In fact, it’s not well understood by most technical people either.
But let’s try the useful metaphor of building a house. (One you hope will be worth hundreds of millions of pounds one day!). You probably wouldn’t consider hiring a team of builders you’ve never met before and having them start digging, cutting and hammering without first getting an architect to create a blueprint.
That blueprint is the physical manifestation of two things: 1) your aspirations for the house and 2) the architect’s plan for how those aspirations will be achieved legally, safely, efficiently and cost-effectively.
In short, that blueprint is a roadmap to the successful completion of your vision. That is fundamentally what all architecture is.
It’s the same for a software product. Before you start coding (ideally before you even start hiring) you should get an experienced architect to provide a blueprint that is a roadmap to the successful completion of the product vision. It can be used by all of the stakeholders involved – developers, management and investors – to understand how their needs and expectations are going to be met. And there’s obvious ROI: the cost of an architect’s time is just a fraction of the total build cost.
So when I see a start-up about to embark on a project to build their product without a blueprint I worry about their future success. Sure, it’s possible the project will succeed without a blueprint. A team of builders might just deliver your dream house. But why take the chance?
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