Paul Sheriff on How to be an Architect - Episode 77

This week on the podcast, Jeffrey Palermo is joined by an old friend of his, Paul Sheriff! Paul is a Business Technology Consultant and has over thirty years of experience architecting information systems. He is a top-notch instructor, a Pluralsight author with 20+ courses on topics ranging from Angular, MVC, WPF, XML, jQuery to Bootstrap; and is a speaker at many different conferences and user groups around the world. Paul has also published 300+ articles and has authored over 14 books on topics ranging from C#, SQL Server and many .NET technologies!

With so many episodes of the Azure DevOps Podcast, there's yet to be an episode focused entirely on architecture! So for today's episode, Jeffrey is sitting down with Paul to discuss all things architecture. They discuss Paul's career, what it means to be an architect, his take on the different titles and levels an architect can hold in the software industry, his favorite architecture, key aspects of an architect, and some key insights for those looking to pursue the architect career track.

Topics of Discussion:

[:39] Be sure to visit AzureDevOps.Show for past episodes and show notes.

[:42] About today's guest, Paul Sheriff.

[1:40] Jeffrey welcomes Paul to the podcast.

[2:40] Paul speaks about his career trajectory.

[4:22] What does it mean to be an architect? And how is it different from programming?

[7:06] Paul gives his take on the different titles and levels an architect can hold in the industry.

[9:46] Paul shares some of the things he thinks about when deciding how big systems need to be put together and structured for desktop applications.

[13:15] Where listeners can go to find Paul's favorite architecture.

[14:19] Paul compares and contrasts the role of an architect and drafter in the building world to that in the software industry. He also explains how he thinks architects should be drafting their architecture.

[16:00] A word from Azure DevOps Podcast's sponsor: Clear Measure.

[16:25] Jeffrey gives some quick announcements.

[18:13] Paul shares his favorite diagramming or visualization method for transmitting ideas before getting to the code level.

[20:06] Does Paul think it's important for a team to have shared libraries and frameworks that they use from application to application? Or is it better to have the patterns and not bring the actual code from project to project?

[24:35] What's the best way for an organization that has multiple small teams to actually set an architecture vision and then inspect?

[27:34] Jeffrey and Paul highlight the key concepts that make up the architecture role.

[29:13] Which architecture patterns does Paul think might shift over because of the programming model that Blazor brings in the browser?

[34:26] Paul shares what he's currently up to.

[35:45] Where to find Paul's courses online!

[37:35] Jeffrey and Paul share their final words about pursuing the architect track.

[38:37] Jeffrey thanks Paul for joining this week's episode!

Mentioned in this Episode:

Azure DevOps

Clear Measure (Sponsor)

.NET DevOps for Azure: A Developer's Guide to DevOps Architecture the Right Way, by Jeffrey Palermo — Available on Amazon!

bit.ly/dotnetdevopsebook — Click here to download the .NET DevOps for Azure ebook!

bit.ly/dotnetdevopsbookforcommunity — Visit to get your hands on two free books to give away at conferences or events!

Jeffrey Palermo's Youtube

Jeffrey Palermo's Twitter — Follow to stay informed about future events!

Jeffrey@Clear-Measure.com — Email Jeffrey for a free 30-point DevOps inspection (regularly priced at $5000!) — Spaces are limited!

Paul Sheriff's Website (PDSA.com)

Paul Sheriff on GitHub

Paul Sheriff on Pluralsight

Paul Sheriff's Email: psheriff@pdsa.com

Visual Studio Live! Conference (VSLive!)

The Azure DevOps Podcast: Mark Dunn on Developer Retirement - Episode 75

Want to Learn More?

Visit AzureDevOps.Show for show notes and additional episodes.