Architecture is a broadly used term and can mean different things to different people. Therefore, it is important to first define it so that we can establish a common understanding of this term before proceeding further. The term architecture is defined as the practice of designing systems, buildings, or things. In the context of technology, it refers to the practice of designing structures or systems with individual components with the intention of optimizing the function, cost, and performance of the overall structure.

Thinking in physical terms, a construction architect designing a home will architect how large each room is going to be, as well as decide on the number of windows and their placement in the room. This may also include planning where each room should be located to maximize the use of space and what direction the windows should be facing to maximize sunlight. In a nutshell, a building architect aims to maximize the use of space while keeping optimal functionality and costs in mind.

Similarly, a technology architect designs solutions by making use of the available components, considering the pros and cons of each component, overall costs, and the overall performance of the system. Of course, the desired functionality needed from the overall system and its ability to meet the business objectives will also be a critical factor in determining what individual components to use for the system. The key difference between physical and technology architecture is that most technology architecture used to be based on the waterfall methodology and, as such, required extensive upfront planning, requirements gathering, and documentation. The waterfall methodology is a linear project methodology where a project is broken down into phases, and in most cases, the next phase cannot start until the previous phase has been completed with deliverables signed off. With the advent of Agile and other methodologies, the focus has now turned toward designing solutions that are scalable and can be quickly adapted to changing market conditions. This is important because in order for a business to stay competitive in the global economy, they cannot afford to spend weeks and months updating their systems.

For enterprises, architectural needs vary depending on the needs and stage of the issue the enterprise is trying to solve. Over several years, technology professionals have realized this and have delineated architecture into multiple domains. Since our discussion topic is the role of a data architect, it would be prudent to discuss the various domains of architecture because they are interlinked and exert constraints over each other.

In the subsequent sections, we will look at why data architecture is important as well as explore the different types of architects, their roles, and some of the deliverables they are responsible for producing and maintaining. This will give us a greater understanding of the differences in responsibilities and an appreciation of how the type of architect fits into the architectural puzzle of an enterprise.

Architects have been around for as long as business systems. They may have had different titles over the years, such as systems analyst, technology analyst, and the like, but fundamentally, they have always designed systems that are scalable and efficient. Today, the titles have become more refined and there are multiple types of architects specializing in their own domains. Understanding each of these is important because it will help us have better communication with them and enable us to bring other stakeholders on the same page as well.

Business architect

Business architects are concerned with identifying how value can be created for internal and external stakeholders of the enterprise. This usually involves producing strategy documents, process maps, capability maps, and commonly used business terms within the enterprise or the industry in which the enterprise operates.

Data architect

Data architects are the key topic of this book. Of course, they are mainly concerned with data: how data is organized, how it is moved internally or externally, and how it can be made accessible to users when it is needed. Data architects create data models and make decisions on how data will be stored, consumed, and archived. Some data architects will also analyze and communicate how insights and intelligence can be derived from data that can be useful to stakeholders. Typical deliverables include data models, data definitions, the flow of data, and integrations.

Solution architect

A solution architect is concerned with designing systems that deliver business value to stakeholders. Working closely with Business Architects (BAs), they ensure that the solution will provide the business value that the business requires. One of the key responsibilities of solution architects is to identify the most optimal technology that will meet business requirements. This can include packaged software such as Salesforce or designing custom solutions from the ground up. Deliverables for this type of architecture include functional and technical design documents, system landscape diagrams, and the actual software that's delivered in line with the design that the architect puts forward.

Domain architects

These are architects that have expertise in a particular domain of technology. For example, Information Security (IS) architects, technology architects, and cloud architects have very specific expertise in their respective areas and are considered domain architects. A Salesforce Certified Technical Architect (CTA), although required to have a broad knowledge of certain areas, are experts in implementing Salesforce solutions.

Information security architect

The IS architect has been becoming more important as data integrations between systems become common and cybersecurity becomes critical for enterprises to protect their data and, by extension, their reputation. IS architects are responsible for designing, implementing, and maintaining security solutions that can protect the organization's network and hardware. They regularly conduct different types of testing to identify vulnerabilities and proactively fix them before a security incident materializes. In cases where the organization's security is breached, they work on a root cause analysis and identify fixes to remediate those vulnerabilities.

Technology architect

A technology (or infrastructure) architect is concerned with the physical infrastructure needed to enable organizations to deliver their software applications to their stakeholders. Servers, networks, and cloud-based Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) fall into this category. Their responsibilities include the following:

• Designing and implementing the infrastructure solutions needed by organizations
• Supporting the hardware needs of projects in an enterprise
• Monitoring production environments to ensure that they are running optimally by monitoring certain attributes such as throughput, latency, and redundancy, among others

Deliverables include network diagrams, server-to-server diagrams, and others. With the advent of the cloud, another type of architect that's gaining traction is the cloud architect.

Cloud architect

These architects are mainly concerned with an enterprise's cloud strategy and its implementation. Like technology architects, they are concerned with implementing cloud solutions that can support software that runs on the cloud. The key difference between technology and cloud architects is that traditionally, the former has been more focused on on-premises systems whereas the latter has been focused primarily on cloud solutions. Salesforce, for example, runs entirely on the cloud and although customers don't have to be concerned with how that cloud is implemented, maintenance schedules, and security patches, Salesforce has internal resources that focus on maintaining the cloud infrastructure, ensuring that it can meet the needs of its customers. Cloud architects are also change agents as they must be able to effectively communicate the benefits of using the cloud and be knowledgeable enough to address the questions and concerns that people not so familiar with cloud technologies have.

Let's look at why data architecture is important and what its benefits are.

A common mistake that rookie software developers make is to jump in and start writing code, thinking that the design can be modified later to fit requirements. Sometimes, they may refer to this as Agile thinking and approach. However, this is a fallacy as the data model, once defined, will be used as the foundation upon which other required business functionality is built; it is usually not straightforward to make changes to it quickly.

Let's take an example of an integration that pushes data from an external webinar system into a Salesforce Campaign Member object. Here, the webinar system takes the amount of time a person watched the live webinar and records it as a percentage. The developer has created a custom field of the number type called Webinar % Attended on the Campaign Member object. This field will only accept a number and therefore rejects any letters or special characters.

When the integration is run for the first time, it errors out because the webinar system is sending the percentage attended with the special character, %, and Salesforce therefore rejects it. This is a simple example to demonstrate how the data model needs to be well thought out and designed, not only considering the business requirements, but also understanding system functionality and limitations. In this case, the business doesn't need the values in the Webinar Completed field to make any calculations, so changing the field type to Text will work. In most cases, though, a change like this would require a thorough analysis of impacts on existing functionality and integrations and this can be a time-consuming effort.

Moreover, owing to the large number of systems that are now used in an organization, the sharing of data between these systems (that is, integration) has become crucial. Proper data architecture can avoid costly mistakes such as integrating two systems only to find out at a later stage in the project that there are technical limitations on how often the data can be moved between the two systems.

Important note

In architecture, decisions made earlier affect decisions made later. For example, should a Team Member-related list, intended to record team members working on the lead, be a lookup or a master-detail relationship? These are important design decisions to consider upfront as a change during build, or worse, when the application is in production, can be costly. For example, a decision to change from a multi-select picklist to a single picklist when the app is in production can lead to data loss. Consequently, our earlier decision affects decisions we will have to make surrounding the subsequent data loss.

Another consideration for data architecture is data security. Nefarious individuals or state-sponsored actors understand the value of data, and they look to exploit vulnerabilities for their own advantage. Data architecture ensures that the proper security processes and techniques are applied to the data when it's at rest or in transit. Modern data architecture also needs to conform to data protection regulations such as General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and California Consumer Protection Act (CCPA).

Organizations recognize the value of data and derive insights from it. Moving data from one system to another is not done in vain, rather, there are clear business objectives that are to be achieved. The most common of these objectives is decision making based on hard data. Proper data architecture will take into account how data from a multitude of systems can be brought together to meet the operational and analytical requirements of the business. An intense topic of interest these days, which we will discuss in the upcoming chapters, is how to achieve that single, unified view of the customer commonly referred to as Customer 360, and data architecture plays a key role in that.

The benefits of data architecture

Having discussed the importance of data architecture, let's look at some of the benefits it offers:

• It sets the stage for discussion and easy communication with different stakeholders: Creating a data architect diagram can facilitate discussions with solution architects and Business Analysts (BAs). It also facilitates getting approval from security teams that are concerned with how data is utilized and the boundaries it's going to cross; for example, a multi-national organization that has multiple legacy Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems will want to address how data is going to move and be stored across continents in consideration of compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).
• It plays a vital role in driving non-functional requirements (NFRs): NFRs are related to the quality of the system being designed, such as performance, usability, and maintainability. Considering maintainability, for example, if the architecture is well defined, we will be able to enhance our application with relative ease compared to when the architecture has major flaws and in certain situations may require a complete redesign of the application, which is a costly and time-consuming endeavor.
• It enables change management: Change is inevitable. Now more than ever, internal and external forces are driving change at a rapid pace. Internally, enhancement requests, new business processes, and technological changes drive this change, whereas externally, raw market forces such as competition, geopolitical changes, and regulatory policies can drive this change. Having a well-defined data architecture that is properly documented and uses commonly understood language and standards enables stakeholders to respond to change quickly.
• It enables fast ramp-ups: Part of the change that we discussed in the last point also applies to changes in resourcing, meaning people in the company come and go. Having a good architecture established can be very helpful in training new personnel. Take the example of a new hire who joins the support team of an AppExchange partner that sells a popular recruitment app. Having the data model and reviewing it with the new hire can cut short the time needed to ramp up the resource to provide quality support to their customers.
• It is reusable: If an architecture was used once for an application and it was successful, it can be easily adapted by other areas in the enterprise or used for similar-natured projects in the future. Architecture work is intense and time-consuming and for large projects, it requires a lot of collaboration with multiple stakeholders. Reusing architecture eliminates or reduces the need to put in the same level of effort as the first time and this alone can translate into hard dollar savings for an enterprise.

There is also the quality aspect: when you are reusing your architecture the second or third time, you will be thinking of further improving it rather than rethinking the architecture from scratch. Over time, this cycle of continuous improvement can lead to an architecture that will start to be accepted in the company as a reference architecture. More and more, projects will start to adopt it, or the Enterprise Architect (EA) may mandate it as the starting point for designing other projects.

Having learned about the importance of data architecture and its benefits, we will next discuss in detail a data architect's responsibilities in the next section.

Enterprise architecture is the highest level and the starting point from where guidelines, best practices, and overall enterprise parameters are set. For example, all integrations, whenever possible, will use the enterprise middleware and tightly coupled point-to-point interfaces will be avoided. Alternatively, when integrating two systems, the receiving system must pull data from the sending system rather than the sending system pushing data into the receiving system on a set schedule. This impacts the data architecture directly because, when designing interfaces, the data architect will need to be cognizant of these constraints set by the EA. Similarly, the solution architect would need to consider what other integration options are available if a system cannot be directly integrated using a point-to-point design (the point-to-point integration pattern is generally discouraged and should not be used when other viable options are available).

In this section, we will focus on the responsibilities of a data architect. However, it is important to understand the goals of data architecture before discussing the roles and responsibilities of a data architect. In any enterprise these days, usually there are volumes of data generated or flowing into or out of the enterprise. The data architect's goal is to design blueprints to facilitate the short-term and long-term data needs of the enterprise securely. This requires understanding the long-term vision of the enterprise (business strategy) so that the data architect can propose and implement processes that will align data management with the business strategy and maximize the ROI in the enterprise's data initiatives. The responsibilities of a data architect include the following:

• Understanding, assessing, and documenting the current state of the organization: This is the first and probably the most important step for a data architect, ensuring that they understand the current state thoroughly. This helps in identifying current issues in data flows and integration pain points as well as in formulating a plan for the future. Furthermore, documenting the current state aids in communicating with other stakeholders, such as EAs, solution architects, and business architects. This helps in securing project funding from the executive leadership.
• Developing a dictionary for data across the organization: Data architects define and maintain data dictionaries. A data dictionary is an inventory of data items that are used to convey information about data, such as metadata.
• Aligning data architecture activities with enterprise architecture: The data architect works closely with the EAs to ensure the initiatives that the data architect takes align with policies and guidelines established by the EA.
• Developing a data requirements plan for the long-term storage, archiving, processing, and transmitting of data: On an ongoing basis, data architects work on ensuring that the organization's data remains viable over a long period of time. They also need to anticipate industry and technology changes to ensure initiatives taken today will not obstruct the future use of newer technologies and that the organization can continue to evolve to face new marketplace realities.
• Guiding domain architects and external partners on optimal ways to access data: Data architects assist and provide guidance to domain architects and other stakeholders that may be trying to access the organization's data. They are expected to provide guidance around integration design as well to ensure that they align with EAs' policies and guidelines.
• Evaluating applications: Often, data architects are asked to participate in evaluating Commercial off-the-Shelf (COTS) applications from the context of data. They will look at data flows and how the new application would interact with the data. What changes, if any, need to be made before the application can work with existing data or data that is getting produced by the organization?
• Data governance: The data architect is also an integral part of data governance activities in the organization. They are responsible for documenting and maintaining processes related to technical data governance and data models for master data subject areas and reference master data.
• Coaching and mentoring: Lead data architects may also have team members that specialize in certain domains reporting to them. These individuals, as well as individuals or architects from other teams, may need coaching and mentoring with respect to matters pertaining to data architecture.
• Being the primary contact for vendors: Data architects also act as the primary technical contact for vendors pertaining to data, particularly Master Data Management (MDM) solutions or other data-focused applications within their portfolio.
• Delivering innovative solutions: With the rapid increase in the volumes and sources of data, regulatory requirements, and policies, organizations require innovative solutions to solve their data-related business problems. A data architect is required to maintain an extensive knowledge base of industry trends, best practices, and the available tools in the marketplace to propose optimal solutions.
• Compliance: Compliance is another area where data architects will spend a considerable amount of their time. To be clear, many organizations will have data privacy officers that understand the privacy laws and develop requirements to adhere to those laws. The data architect, on the other hand, is responsible for the technical implementation and ensures that data flow, storage, and retrieval are in line with these laws and organizational policies.

Now that we have looked at the responsibilities of data architects and their role in an organization, let's review the soft and hard skills that data architects need to be effective in their roles.

A combination of technical and soft skills is required to be successful in a data architect role. Both sets of skills are equally important; it will be difficult to become a successful data architect if either set of skills is lacking. But don't worry, these skills can be learned, and once practiced, they will, over time, make you a very productive and successful data architect. In this section, we cover the skills required to become a successful data architect. Let's start with technical skills.

Technical skills

We will now discuss some of the technical skills that are needed to be a successful data architect. Keep in mind that these are high-level and this is intentional because otherwise, we would need to list individual skills that are needed:

• Data modeling: The ability to define data models is a must-have skill to be successful as a data architect. This forms a very handy tool to communicate with different stakeholders in projects or in the general day-to-day operations of the organization. Knowledge of well-known and commonly used data vendor models, application models, and industry reference models is also an asset.
• Data integrations: The ability to design effective, secure, and scalable integrations using a multitude of tools, as well as knowledge of various integration concepts, such as pub/sub, request/replay, batch processing, and fire and forget.
• Data processing: Understanding and designing flows that take in data and output meaningful information is a skill that is becoming more and more important for data architects. With the advent of huge volumes of data that organizations have been storing over the years, knowing how best to make use of that data to provide insightful wisdom to decision makers is key for data architects.

These are some of the high-level technical skills needed by data architects but typically, they are required to have programming skills such as working with Python or another language, experience in data mining and modeling tools, and an understanding of operating systems.

Soft skills

In this section, we will talk about the character attributes of an exceptional data architect. There are many others that may not be listed here but these are some of the key personality attributes that a good data architect should have:

• Problem-solving: A multitude of data issues are faced by data architects. Therefore, they must be able to apply a beginner's mindset in order to solve these problems. Communication skills including active listening and clear articulation of the problem and what the approach would be to resolve them are also characteristics that help in shaping a successful data architect. Knowing how to solve problems using systems thinking is also a very valuable skill to have. In a nutshell, systems thinking is the understanding that individual parts in a system behave differently compared to their behavior when they are by themselves. Utilizing systems thinking, along with the ability to model systems in a way that they have enough detail and convey the intent of the modeler, is a key advantage to have when solving problems.
• Storytelling: This is an essential skill that makes it easy to communicate with different technical and non-technical stakeholders. The ability to communicate to audiences using stories and metaphors that make the subject matter easy to understand for a non-technical audience can help to build rapport with stakeholders quickly.
• Objectivity: The ability to think and act objectively while keeping emotions in check and out of the decision-making process is an important skill for a data architect. Often, you will be interacting with other technical resources that may prefer one solution over another. The ability to objectively analyze each option and make a recommendation after considering each option will earn your stakeholders' respect and trust.
• Strategic thinking: Data is not something that is around for a month or two, but rather one of the most critical assets of a business and it needs to be treated as such. This requires understanding current and future business needs and the direction an organization is taking. It also involves anticipating the future trends of the industry and its best practices.
• Adaptable: A data architect should be flexible; they should be able to adapt to changes and operate in a fast-paced environment. Many organizations do not have the discipline and the necessary governance processes in place, resulting in a very chaotic environment from a data perspective. The data architect must be able to sift through that, understand what's required, and deliver on what will add value to the business.
• Leadership: As an architect, you will be expected to be responsible for designing and developing an optimal solution, which is all fine and dandy if you were doing all the work yourself, but that's not how the real world works. In many projects, you will be working with a team of architects, developers, BAs, and other stakeholders. Your decisions may be challenged and the rationale of certain decisions questioned. How do you deal with that? Using your technical or positional authority to push through your decisions? That may work in the short term, but in the longer term, you will face more challenges from the team and may also lose respect in the process. Having leadership skills that influence people to follow your decisions by inspiring them to do the right thing is a better longer-term approach. This requires establishing trust by walking the talk and being transparent with your peers. Keep in mind that you don't have to have an official title to be a leader; rather, you can still influence people regardless of the position or title you hold in the company.
• Analytical: Data architects need to be observant and have the ability to investigate a problem and find an optimal solution in a timely and efficient manner. This skill is very important because the ability to collect data from various sources, sift through non-relevant information, and analyze the rest to get to the root cause of a problem, can mean the difference between suggesting a solution that will solve the problem versus wasted time and effort.

One of the things that I want to drill down further is communication: the barriers to effective communication and the famous seven Cs that can be used to efficiently communicate. The importance of these cannot be stressed enough because unless you are an efficient communicator, your mileage with being a successful data architect will vary and you will face challenges. Now, let's look at these in the next section.

Barriers to effective communication

From the time we wake up to the time we go to bed, most of us are communicating with the people in our lives. Communication is not only verbal but can also be via body language or even social media these days.

The PRovoke Media, a reputable PR firm, estimated that a staggering $37 billion dollars were lost among 400 companies (100,000+ employees) surveyed in the US and UK and, according to the report, this may just be the tip of the iceberg – the actual losses may be much more. Let's look at some of the major barriers to communication. Recognizing these will help you to be cognizant and more careful next time you are giving a presentation, conducting a global team call, having a discussion with your children, or coaching a direct report at work.

Physical barriers

These are barriers to communication that are caused by physical conditions, for example, if your car breaks down on the highway and you are speaking with the tow-truck driver. Unless you are speaking loudly, you might be telling the driver to tow your car to your house, but they may hear it wrong and tow it to the garage. Another example is when you have an important presentation to give and your boss emails you 5 minutes before the presentation asking you to remove a slide but doesn't mention which one. You try to send them an instant message, but the service is down. Thinking they must have meant the slide with too many diagrams, you remove that slide but find out after the meeting that it was in fact a different slide.

This type of barrier is especially felt when people cannot have face-to-face interactions; for example, during the COVID-19 pandemic, people were reduced to communicating through phone, text, email, or on-camera meetings. Although on-camera meetings can be very effective, important information related to non-verbal cues, such as body language, eye contact, and gestures, can still get lost, all of which form an integral part of communication.

Psychological barriers

This is the type of barrier where communication cannot be effective due to psychological issues. A somewhat common manifestation is when you notice your co-worker is not performing their job well and you find out that they are going through debt issues or, worst yet, a divorce. Or, when you are in a meeting and one of the attendees appears to be absent-minded and feels slightly embarrassed when they are asked a question. Speaking with them afterward, you find out that they witnessed a horrible accident that day when driving to the office.

Language barriers

This type of barrier is related to the language of the speaker and the listener. Let's say the speaker is a native English speaker whereas the listener is not well versed in English; the speaker might say one thing and the listener may understand it to be something else. This could also be affected by different dialects, so the language may be the same but the dialects may be so different that speakers of one dialect may have a hard time understanding speakers of another dialect.

Semantical barriers

This barrier is related to the meaning and interpretation of words. It's important that the speaker and the listener have the same understanding of the words or terms used. If a school counselor is counseling a student and they say, you need to turn a new page in your life, unless the student knows what that idiom means, the intent of the speaker by using this idiom will be lost. Another common example is the use of buzzwords or phrases, which are especially prevalent in technology. Using the phrase eat your own dog food means using your own software internally that you sell to customers. Unless properly explained, this may sound disgusting and abhorrent to a listener who is not aware of this phrase. That's why you should avoid the use of buzzwords and idioms as much as possible to ensure your listeners are not confused and communication is not lost.

Information overload barriers

This type of barrier happens when the information processing demands placed on a person exceed their capacity to properly process them. Many of us can relate to this when we are getting emails, Slack messages, text messages, and meeting reminders and we feel we are drowning in work. This also happens in projects that are not very well organized and the BA, for example, is sent similar requirements through email, a meeting that just happened, instant messaging, or verbally by someone stopping at their cube for 2 minutes. This can lead to important pieces of information being either dropped completely or mixed up with another requirement.

Cultural barriers

These barriers relate to different cultures, and with increasing diversity in workplaces, you will likely be dealing with people from different cultures. That's why it's important to recognize these barriers to ensure your communication is understood and effective. Some examples of cultural barriers include following strict org hierarchies and reservedly answering questions from your manager's boss because the cultural norm at your previous workplace in a different country was to have all communication upward or downward come through your immediate manager. Another example is how in some cultures, anyone higher than you in rank should be addressed with either Sir or Ma'am. A third example, in some cultures, is that it is rude to make eye contact when talking with the opposite gender, whereas in some cultures, it would be considered rude not to make eye contact and could be construed as lying or trying to hide something.

Now that we have looked at the barriers, let's look at what constitutes effective communication that can be used to mitigate these barriers and have our message easily understood and acted on.

The seven Cs of effective communication

The seven Cs of communication give us a way to effectively communicate and have something tangible to evaluate ourselves on whether we are communicating effectively or not. The seven Cs are also an effective tool to manage the barriers to communication discussed in the last section. Think of these as a checklist to ensure your next presentation, speech, email, or even a simple text message to your kid is understood. Remember, the most important goal of communication is getting your message across to the audience.

Clarity

Have a clear goal and purpose for your message. It can be helpful to think of a quote by Steve Coveys: begin with the end in mind. Think about what you want your listener to do at the end of your message. Given that the human mind can comprehend a limited amount of information at a time (think of the information overload barrier discussed earlier), try to break down your message into parts that the listener can easily understand.

Conciseness

Keep your message concise and short. If you have written an email with 3 paragraphs and 19 lines, could you convey the same message in 1 paragraph and 5 lines? Here are some examples of wordy sentences:

The pandemic caused a great deal of anxiety and frequent mental health problems in society.

The poverty usually suffered by children in inner-city neighborhoods caused Anna to deeply think about how she could change things for the better in her neighborhood.

The following are examples of concise sentences:

The pandemic caused intense anxiety and health problems in society.

Seeing the suffering of kids in inner-city neighborhoods caused Anna to think of ways in which she could improve her neighborhood.

Concreteness

This relates to how precise the message is that is being delivered. Avoiding ambiguity helps your audience understand your message and act on it. This is where you can also provide facts and figures to ensure the message is understood. Take this example: according to the research firm IDC, Salesforce and its ecosystem will create 4.2 million new jobs between 2019 and 2024. Providing this research reference is better than saying there are going to be lots of jobs generated in the Salesforce ecosystem in the next few years.

Coherence

This relates to how well the beginning, body, and ending of a message are aligned with each other. This is probably one of the reasons why communication trickling down from top management in companies is intended to be something else, but by the time it gets to the bottom, it can be easily misconstrued because the original message is not coherent and there are contradictions in it or the ideas are not connected with each other.

Courtesy

Showing respect and being polite in your communications will help you get your message across smoothly and make your audience more perceptive to receive and accept your message. They will be more willing to act on or approve your proposal. Try to be inclusive in your communication and use words that reflect inclusivity and are deemed culturally acceptable.

Completeness

This relates to how far the message is complete. Does it have the information the audience requires to act? Are you jumping from topic to topic, leaving the listener confused on what the expectation is of them?

Consideration

Consider your audience and present your material accordingly. Try to understand your audience beforehand: what are their viewpoints, opinions, or constraints? Try to put yourself in their shoes and try to be empathetic. This can help you craft your message so that it is more easily understood and accepted by your audience. Many people struggle with the right amount of information to present. The ladder of abstraction is a mental framework that can be used to determine the right amount of information to present. As seen in the following diagram, the higher up the ladder you are, the more abstract the idea is, and the lower you are on the ladder, the more concrete the idea is:

Figure 1.1 – The ladder of abstraction

The diagram depicts how you can move on the ladder of abstraction and tailor your message for your audience. Typically, C-level executives want to understand the why and leave the implementation details to their direct reports.

Let's look at an example:

• Idea: We want to improve our customer service.
• Elaboration: Provide an omnichannel experience to customers. Customer Service-Level Agreements (SLAs) must be met and the system should facilitate meeting the SLAs. Product development teams need to know the nature of cases coming in to understand where break/fix efforts should be directed.
• Features: A feedback survey is sent to the customer regardless of which channel they used to contact support. Cases can be created directly from social media applications such as Facebook. The system should be able to store customer entitlements and send reminders and escalation notifications at appropriate times. Product development teams can run reports and dashboards to gauge the nature of cases being opened and the average time spent on resolving issues.
• Process: The customer can send an email or fill out a form on the website to create a case. That will create a case in Salesforce and assign it to the relevant team using case assignment rules. The entitlement process assists in ensuring that your team is following a methodical process to solve customer cases and are meeting their SLAs.

We have looked at the seven Cs of communication and the ladder of abstraction to tailor our communication so it is more effective. In the next section, we will look at the path to becoming a data architect.

Becoming a data architect

There can be different paths to becoming a data architect and it is hard to define a fixed set of steps to become one, but the following is the path that most people take on their journey toward becoming a data architect:

• Education: A large majority of data architect jobs require a bachelor's degree in computer science or information technology with a focus on courses related to data analysis, data modeling, and analytics. Internships while studying can be extremely beneficial and help in launching your career as a data architect. A master's degree in business intelligence and analytics can further deepen your understanding of the subject matter.
• Experience: This is perhaps one of the most important components required to become a great data architect but it can be challenging. The reason is most companies require some level of real-world experience before you get a job as a junior data architect or an analyst. An analogy can be made with which came first, the chicken or the egg? If you don't have experience, most companies will not consider you, and if you don't find work, you won't have experience. This can be alleviated to some degree by doing as many hands-on projects as possible during your college years and getting into co-op programs.
• Training: Enrolling in training programs that focus on data-related functions can also help strengthen your understanding of the subject matter. Attending training courses or seminars conducted by DAMA (Data Management Association) can provide a good foundation for advancing your career or making an entry into the data field.
• Certifications: There are many certifications available for data architects, but since this book is mostly for Salesforce data architects, the data architecture and management certification exam can be really helpful in understanding the foundation of Salesforce data modeling and design, managing data in Salesforce, data migrations, and various other data-related topics. I will suggest, though, writing the Sharing and Visibility Designer exam first as it has data-related aspects that can be helpful and will help ease you into broader and deeper topics that are covered in the former.

In the next section, we will look at a day in the life of a data architect.

In this section, we will explore a day in a data architect's life. As we stated in the introduction, this can help us understand and put into context some of the things that data architects do. It also helps us to translate their responsibilities in a practical way. Keep in mind that this is provided just as a general idea of how data architects spend their day and shouldn't be taken as an exact sequence of how they go about completing their duties:

The morning may look as follows:

• Document the proposed data model for an enhancement project related to order fulfillment. Prepare a presentation for the enterprise, IS, and integration architects and other technical stakeholders.
• Participate in a weekly meeting with EAs and other domain architects to align on existing policies and guidelines and new ones that may be under consideration.
• Participate in a project meeting with an integration architect and a System, Applications, and Products (SAP) solution architect looking to integrate work orders and invoicing with SAP and Salesforce.

The afternoon may look as follows:

• Analyze requirements from operations requiring access to Opportunity and Opportunity Products data in a data warehouse for reporting. Opportunity data is more than 5 million rows.
• Work on a request to archive Opportunity and Opportunity Products data. Look into the pros and cons of using big objects, Heroku, or other available options.
• Understand the capabilities of Einstein Analytics and explore its use cases and how it could meet the organization's analytics requirements. Also, explore Salesforce Tableau and its capabilities for reporting needs that are challenging to meet using the native reports and dashboards functionality.
• Present the proposed data model for the order fulfillment project. Field questions and seek feedback from the team.

In this section, we looked at a data architect's day to gain a better understanding of the role, the interactions they have with other stakeholders in the organization, and a glimpse of the research and prototyping that is required to be successful in the role.

In this chapter, we have reviewed the different types of architects and then focused on data architects, their responsibilities, and the technical and soft skills that are needed to be successful in the role. I hope you have gained a much greater appreciation of what data architects are and how critical their role is in organizations these days. We also reviewed some of the benefits of architecture, which will have convinced you, if you weren't already, that having a proper architecture for a project is a key ingredient for success.

We then reviewed the barriers to effective communication and the use of the seven Cs of communication to help us be effective in our communications. This should give you an objective way to formulate your responses and evaluate the areas where you can improve your communication skills. From my experience, a key challenge that technical folks face is tailoring their communication depending on their audience. The ladder of abstraction is an excellent tool to help you understand your audience so that you can tailor your communication to increase its understanding and acceptability. Remember, the end goal of communication is to convey the information the way you intended it and have it accepted by the audience that is being communicated with.

The role of a data architect is increasingly important and exciting and comes with a lot of challenges and growth. I encourage you to join your local chapter of DAMA, which is a global not-for-profit organization that is committed to advancing the concepts of information and data management. They are vendor-agnostic and cover a variety of topics that influence data.

In the next chapter, we will review fundamental concepts related to objects in Salesforce and the different field types and relationships. Next, we will review data modeling in Salesforce and why you should unlearn some of your learnings if you have worked with relational databases before. At the end, we will take a look at the Salesforce architecture and the different components that work together seamlessly to deliver an optimal user experience.

1. Precision Printing (PP) has been expanding exponentially in the last few years. With the expansion has come a growing list of systems that are used in the enterprise and actionable insights are becoming more and more challenging for business users. The Enterprise Architect (EA) office, consisting of business architects and a lead architect, has been tasked to fix the analytics problem. On an immediate basis, what type of architect should the EA office hire?

a) Cloud architect

b) Technology architect

d) Data architect

c) Business architect

2. The data architect should define the security standards for all the data in the organization, including compliance with the data-related regulations that the organization is subjected to (True/False).
3. Cobalt Space Exploration Inc. is hiring for a role to help them with putting standards around data governance to improve data quality and data management. What role can help fulfil the stated objective:

a) Solution architect

b) Business architect

c) Cloud architect

d) Data architect

• The Cost Of Poor Communications, https://www.provokemedia.com/latest/article/the-cost-of-poor-communications