Understanding the role of stakeholders
Being part of the team and being focused on development can take the focus away from who is impacted by our work. We talk so much about user needs and experience that we cannot look from above and see all the parts affected by our product. Until the moment of being used, systems must be shaped, built and tested, may have to be extended, and are usually maintained, planned, and financed.
The truth is that stakeholders have a great deal of decisional impact on the product’s evolution and we must pay attention to their needs. The stakeholders are the ones from whom the demand for a product appears. You must identify your stakeholders, keep them close, understand their needs and perspectives, and create an architecture that meets their requirements as effectively as possible.
Software development, and software architecture even more so, can become very complex. Also, as we already discussed, software architecture is tremendously impacted by requirements, and those requirements come from people that are not necessarily technically minded; so, in this case, it is an architect’s job to make sure that everyone understands what we are building. This way, we ensure everyone knows the product’s direction and structure and can keep track of its evolution and changes. Having everyone on the same page can provide valuable feedback and help us make better-informed decisions.
When thinking about stakeholders, we can use this classification to identify them quickly:
- Before getting to the users, analyze who is part of building the product, such as the project management team, development team, and designers.
- Look at who is using your product, such as the customers and users.
- There are also people not directly involved and not using the product but who are part of the process by facilitating some actions and techniques, such as top managers and company owners.