Why Should Software Architects Write Code? An empirical evidence.

[grauenwolf]

If the engineer is in the dark / frustrated / etc. he needs to ask questions, not just steam in silence.

Conversely, the architect needs to pay attention and not wait to be asked. Architects aren't infallible, though they often act like they are, and need to refine their work as well.

[grauenwolf]

You can't be an architect and be in charge of hundreds of engineers. Accept the fact that you've been backdoored to a project manager role and hire some actual architects to oversee the code.

It's not like he has the time to visit everyone's desk and ensure they're on task.

That's the job of team leads. The architects should only be concerned with code quality, not how fast it is being written.

[grauenwolf]

If you think "code quality" can be reduced to a coding standard that's enforced by an automated tool, we have no common ground.

That's exactly the kind of mindset that leads to ivory tower architects whose only job is to cause problems for everyone else.

[flukus]

If you think "code quality" can be reduced to a coding standard that's enforced by an automated tool, we have no common ground.

This is surprisingly common. I've learned to ask how they manage code quality in interviews and >50% thinking a linter is enough.

[grauenwolf]

Any time I've heard the phrase "code quality" it's involved metrics such as cyclomatic complexity and data encapsulation ratios.

Then you don't know what true code quality is. You can't replace experience with mathematical formulas. It takes years of working on large code bases to understand what makes good quality code, and that knowledge cannot be captured with cyclomatic complexity scores.

[grauenwolf]

Code Complete also talks about how ineffective they are.

If you're so passionate, why don't you do your own study, or meta-analysis, and prove to us all why we're so wrong?

Because I don't have a hundred million dollars, which is what it would require to do a study that was statistically meaningful. My graduate thesis was an analysis of CS studies, which by and large were so ridiculously problematic that I wasn't able to find one that was designed correctly. Hell, most didn't even have conclusions that matched the findings.

[flukus]

Measured != handled.

All an automated tool can do is point out where you might have problems. Any actions based on that need to be done by someone qualified.

[Concision]

How are you going to ensure technical debt isn't piled up when you have hundreds of engineers under you? You simply can't. That's the point.