Brandorr wrote: > While working on this could people consider the conflicting messages > I've heard... "ARC early and often" and "Don't ARC until it's > completely fleshed out at the CG level."
Any message that says "Don't ARC until ..." seems wrong - in many ways. While it may not be possible to "get ARC Commitment" until after some (potentially significant) prototyping has been done, the more work that is done in ignorance of architectural constraints, the greater the chance that that work will need to be thrown away or significantly redone. This is why the ARC process STARTS with the expectation that a "heads up" proposal will be submitted as soon as someone decides they want to *start* tinkering with something, and that they will interact with the ARC regularly as they flesh out their idea with prototypes, and that, once they are sure about what they intend, they will come to an already-educated ARC to seek commitment for that plan. If done right, that commitment is slam-dunk easy. IMHO, it is a bug that the CG & Project creation process is completely disconnected from the ARC - it is easier for the ARC to ignore projects that obviously have no architectural connections (user groups, portals...) than it is to pick up the pieces of chaos that arise when projects get to completion without any ARC interactions at all... -John
