Anders, then a 26-year-old boy, started as a developer in 1997. At that time, the end user was something different than today.

"We wrote software for experts or specialized professionals, who were then sent on courses to learn this particular system. If there was a manual system before, it should preferably be as similar as possible to this one – that's not the case today," he says.

Anders, then 26, started as a developer in 1997. At that time, the end user was something different than today.

The big paradigm shift came a few years later, when people began to program towards the web to a greater extent. He elaborates on this by explaining that it led to a different expectation of what an end user should face. 

– The winners were those who managed to design things that did the job efficiently, and were intuitive.

At the same time, there was also a different expectation of code as technology improved.

– You coded for the CPU in the old days, where even short variable names helped you. You don't need that anymore. You have to write the code for the next programmer, he explains enthusiastically.

There is always a way to write code more compactly, but Anders' attitude to code and infrastructure is quality over complexity. Especially in the form of readability for the next person or people who find their way into his particular code, who may want to use it further for new functions. Or just understand what the system actually does.

When the conversation turns more towards architecture and the architect role, I am left wondering if it is the two-sided nature of Anders, i.e. the boy with experience, that makes him such a skilled technical architect. Because even in architecture, there are fronts that must work together for the whole to work. 

– Architecture is about dualities that must interact.

Because it is the case, Anders informs, that a good architecture should work towards the end user of the system, but it should also be 'fit for purpose' on the inside. 

He elaborates:

"This means that the architecture must be able to balance different needs so that the requester gets what they need in the form of good, intuitive and relevant user interfaces. At the same time, the back-end must be put together to be able to support both the needs of the present, and also the unknown needs of the future.

What we know, we in this industry, is that a well-designed system just simmers and goes and works, regardless of what is delivered to the user, and not in spite of. There are enough examples where a lack of architectural management has had major and not least expensive consequences, where some 'just have to', which then have unforeseen consequences a bit down the line.

In the talk about these consequences and what all this can go wrong really is, Anders says:

"I have a saying I've always used when I've held courses: It's never wrong to do things right!

He explains that not doing the architecture work from the start can be very expensive, especially if you haven't taken into account things like growth and scalability. Or it can become so confusing that it cannot be tested properly, which is very critical.

– And then you end up having to build everything from the start, just because you didn't take the time initially. A skilled architect knows this, he continues.

He says that it is about creating balance. An architect does this by being the one who creates a bridge between the client and the executor. A good architect is thus a person who is humble and listens to those around him, learns from them and has the diplomatic skills to find the right compromises at the right time and place. And not least someone who is able to translate this into solutions. 

– The architect must be able to sort everything into something action.

In Forte Digital, Anders started something he calls "The Budding Architect Program".

He then talks about having the ability to make decisions. For Anders, a skilled architect is often a person who has the ability to both lift his gaze and see the big picture, but who also has the ability down to the code level to understand the details.

Anders' descriptions are  apt, and shows that the Arctic is demanding.  It requires a certain amount of experience, and a certain amount and type of characteristics. Especially to become a good architect. It may not be for every developer to take that direction.

But those who do, like Anders, usually have a strong interest in the subject, and because they have gradually gained enough experience to understand something more or some larger wholes than they perhaps did before. 

Anders would also very much like more people to gain some of this understanding earlier, and in Forte Digital he has started something he calls the "Budding Architect Program".

"Well", says Anders and hesitates a little.

– It is the case that we architects can quickly be regarded as some older people who are perceived as a bit unapproachable. So we talked a bit about creating awareness of what we do, and out of this a thought arose about how we could work more towards those who have often been called 'aspiring architects'. 

Anders took the reins and outlined a scheme we at Forte Digital call the "Budding Architect Programme". The idea of the program is to identify developers and others who have ambitions in the direction of the architectural profession, catch them early and stimulate them to help them along the way.

There is no stated goal that all the budding students will end up as architects, nor any fixed timetable for how long it will take to get there.

– The road is the goal, sort of, he says enthusiastically and continues:

– And in connection with the work on the budding program, the term The Empathic Architect arose, where I think that an architect should be good to the client, code, employees, data, processes, interfaces, co-spires and so on.

If we can achieve this, Forte Digital, and, by extension, our customers, potentially have an advantage in the years to come. The budding architect program, which Anders is responsible for, is in a start-up phase and will start its first courses in the autumn of 2024 - something several in the company are looking forward to following and seeing the results of. 

Our allotted time for this talk is coming to an end, but we touch a little on the future, and what it will bring. Among other things, we talk a little about AI.

Anders does not have much to add to that discussion that has not already been said, but again we meet a duality. This time perhaps more like Janus, this Roman god with two faces who, among other things, represents beginnings and endings, but also doorways.

– It can be used both destructively, and constructively. We simply don't know yet, but we should remember that they said that a lot of jobs would disappear when the internet came – and then there were just more jobs.

I try to push him a little more about what he thinks about the future.

"Anyone who predicts the future is lying" (quote Tron Øgrim), Anders paraphrases and adds:

– But it will be exciting to see.