Architects and Scientists

Is the “Architect” in “Analytics Architect”, “Infrastructure Architect” or “Data Architect” analogues to the “Scientist” in “Data Scientist”? Clearly the answer is no. 

“Architect” in a technical job title generally implies that responsibilities include structural design of the information system, like a traditional Architect’s responsibilities include structural design of a building or other physical structure. In these technical job titles the word “Architect” is not intended to be interpreted as a traditional Architect. Traditional Architects’ opinions on this seem to range from insult to flattery. See this article titled I'm an Architect by Amanda Kolson Hurley at architectmagazine.com.

 The “Scientist” in “Data Scientist” is intended to say that the person is an actual scientist. As I discussed in my first post to this blog, a data scientist generally does not publish their work, an important part of the scientific method; therefore, I am not convinced that the work they do is actually science and so I do not believe that they are actual scientists.

In conclusion, an Analytics Architect is not an actual architect and a Data Scientist is not an actual scientist. The title “Analytics Architect” is not intended to mean that the person is an actual architect. The title “Data Scientist” is intended to mean that the person is an actual scientist. Stopping there is not entirely fair because while an Analytics Architect’s work barely resembles the work of an actual architect, a Data Scientist’s work comes pretty close to being actual science. 

For my next post I will cover a technical topic.