What effect does on the job experience have on improving architectural competence?

Answer 1

The answer depends on the individual's technical depth, the mentor's technical history, and the environment or operational scale providing background for the experience. If the individual is really sharp in English literature and capable of sophisticated library database searches, then on the job experience will grant that person the competence to "do things right" under capable direction. Knowing how to do things right is important. Knowing the right things to do is more important. An example: a good technician with ample on the job experience can brag that they installed/configured the first LDAP server in the computer center. Successfully setting up the LDAP server is indeed a worthy accomplishment. However, is having a separate LDAP server with it's own data store replicating the enterprise data really the right thing to do? LDAP is a protocol. Why not make use of that protocol and run it against the enterprise data running on the existing enterprise servers? Unfortunately our technician can't see that the challenging task given to them is not the right task or solution for the organization. Nevertheless knowing how to do things right is a benefit of on the job experience toward a better architectural competence. Necessary but not sufficient.