• Apply Patterns to Agent Interactions
• Assess Results
• Define Agent Decisions based on Trust Values
• Design the Solution
• Develop Technical Vision
• Manage Iteration
• Plan Iteration
• Plan Project

• [Agent Architecture]
• [Interaction Model]
• [Multi-Agent System Architecture]
• [System Environment Description]
• Agent Interaction Model
• Agent Organisation Structure
• Architectural Style Notebook
• Architecture Notebook
• Individual Agent Architecture
• Multi-Agent System Architecture
• Observation Model
• Risk List
• Trust Model

Architects must be well-rounded people with maturity, vision, and a depth of experience that allows for grasping issues quickly and making educated, critical judgments in the absence of complete information. Specifically, the person must possess this combination of qualifications:

• Experience in both problem and software engineering domains, with evidence of a thorough understanding of the requirements to solve the problem and active participation in software development. If there is a team, this experience can be represented by different team members, but at least one person must be able to describe the overall vision for the project.
• Leadership ability to motivate and maintain momentum for the technical effort across the various teams and to make critical decisions under pressure, plus make those decisions stick. To be effective, this role must have the authority to make technical decisions. This role cannot lead by decree, but only by the consent of the rest of the project team. To be effective, this person must earn the respect of the team members, project managers, the customer, and the user community, as well as the management team.
• Excellent communication skills to earn trust, persuade, motivate, and mentor. The person in this role must have good communication skills, both verbally and in writing.
• Critical review skills to make sure that the requirements to be built are clear and consistent and to make sure that the developed system adheres to the architecture.
• Goal-oriented and proactive orientation with a relentless focus on results. This person is the technical driving force behind the project, not a visionary or dreamer. The career of a successful architect is a long series of sub-optimal decisions made in uncertainty and under pressure. Only those who can focus on doing what needs to be done will be successful.

From an expertise standpoint, the Architect also needs to show both design and implementation abilities. However, from the design perspective, the effective Architect typically exhibits these traits:

• Tends to be a generalist, rather than a specialist, who knows many technologies at a high level rather than a few technologies at the detailed level
• Makes the broader technical decisions, thereby demonstrating broad knowledge and experience, as well as communication and leadership skills

The person in this role should be engaged in the project from start to finish.

For smaller projects, a single person can act as both Architect and project manager. However, it is better to have these roles performed by different people to ensure that the pressures of one role does not cause neglect of the other role. The Architect and Project Manager must work together closely.

For systems of scale, it is a common best practice to have an architecture board that is populated by the architects of each system, plus one or two chief architects. In such cases, the members of the architecture board collectively play the role of the Architect.