Enhancing IT architect capabilities: Experiences within a university subject

The role of IT Architect is important in the development and successful implementation of Information Technology systems across the world. The people performing the role are critical to the success of the systems. This paper reports on the results of an experiment aimed at developing two key IT architect capabilities within the context of a post graduate Systems Architecture subject. One capability is related to problem solving and while surprisingly student problem solving confidence was impacted other aspects of problem solving important for IT Architects were unchanged. The other capability being researched, future time orientation was also unchanged through intervention. Therefore alternative approaches for improving these capabilities are preferable as factors such as external pressures on the students within the semester outweighed any short term capability improvement.