What should you do if you are promoted or hired to be the first Head of Architecture in a big, international organisation? What should you do to shape the role to deliver value to the organisation and its customers? How do you work with many development teams to shape the current legacy spaghetti mess into a coherent system, without becoming a bottleneck?

In this talk I'll respond to all questions and more, by sharing my experience in becoming the first Head of Architecture in a big international organisation.

Target Audience: Architects, Developers, Senior Managers
Prerequisites: Knowledge of software architecture
Level: Expert

Extended Abstract:
In this talk I'll share my experience in becoming the first Head of Architecture in a big international organisation, and on how I shaped the role to deliver value both to the organisation and its customers. Among other things, I'll share what I did to:

- Work productively with the development teams and be relevant.
- Navigate the political landscape to influence decisions.
- Create an architectural decision process tailored to the needs of the organisation.
- Provide guidelines and constraints to decentralise decision making while avoiding chaos.

The attendees will get a better understanding of what the role encompasses, and future heads of architecture may get a better view of what expects them in this role.