I’ve decided that software architecture is really about convincing clients that you have a vision. It doesn’t really matter much what the vision is, as long as you can depict it on a piece of paper. People want to see pretty colored boxes that fit together. If the boxes have plugs and recepticles, so much the better. There are some general guidelines that any architect should follow:

  Sprinkle drawings with a few buzzwords: service, framework, and rules are all in vogue

  Make it clear that legacy applications and data have a place and you have something really cool to connect them (you don’t neccessarily have to specify the “coolness”)

  Don’t bother with any messy realities (limitations in data integration, audience specific services, etc.)