Architecture and what to trust in a "post-truth"​ world

Listening to a TED Talk on the way to customer site today - 'What to trust in a "post-truth" world by Alex Edmans. Whilst clearly not targeted at IT, many of the principles remain the same to architecture and are key for those moving into Architecture as a new role, in summary the key points he called out were;

• A story is not fact, because it may not be true

• A fact in isolation is not data, it may not be representative

• Data is not evidence, it may not not be supportive if it's consistent with rival theories

Leading to the assertions;

• Only if it is true, can it be fact

• Only if it is representative can it be data

• Only if it is supportive can it be evidence (and only with evidence can you then move from a post-truth world to a pro-truth world)

Looking at these from an Architecture perspective, too often statements are taken as the 'truth' - examples could be;

• We 'have' to migrate from xxx to yyy - Your job as an architect is to challenge this, is this a strategy underpinned by data or is it just an opinion that's never been challenged?

• We believe that our users want 'xxx' - Your job as an architect is to ensure that you have 'enough' representation from the organisation to really understand where true value for your solution can be found

• Take your work and intentionally get it challenged, ask people who disagree with you to contribute (in conjunction to those that are 'friendly'), 90% of the feedback may not be relevant, but there will always be the 10% that will - always be open to the possibility that you could be wrong and in doing this you will continue to grow and develop as an Architect.

TED