project architect

jjg's 9 pillars stirred up lots of discussion on the listserves. several threads brought up the idea of a project owner - someone who ensures the vision of the project is realized. much more than the pm tasks of managing scope, timeline & budget.

from a thread on the experience design list:

The idea is simply this: you need someone on your projects to be responsible for the behavior of your software towards it's users and to shepherd this expected behavior thru the development process. Not the technical underpinnings, not the database design, not the language used, but the behavior of the software. And this person needs to be involved from the beginning right thru `til the end. Just like a "real" architect.

So what does a "real" architect do anyway? Most fundamentally, they
design something that meets the needs and expectations of their
customer and then they communicate this design to a team which will
build something that meets the needs and expectations of their
customer.

As they work with the customer they use sketches, elevations,
studies, material swatches and other artifacts to ensure that the
customer understands and agrees with exactly how what is being built
will "behave" towards them. Then, they work with engineers and
drafters to turn that understanding into plans that the builders can
understand. Lastly, they continue to be involved during construction
so that any changes that must be made don't disrupt the conceptual
integrity of the design. They make sure that the changes won't make
the structure behave in a way the customer won't accept.

To the customer they speak in language the customer understands. To
the builders they speak another language (blueprints, engineering
drawings,etc) that the customer may not understand. The most
important function they provide is that of communicating the
expectations from the product clearly to both the customer and the
builder. Sure, they add a lot of value by designing, but the design
artifacts serve primarily to make it clear to all parties what is
expected of the finished structure.

You need someone doing this on your software projects. Your best
projects have always had that person.