2. Back-end architectures and application hosting: go to the cloud or stay on the ground?

• Addressing complex integration challenges with service-oriented architectures (SOAs) and systems of systems
• Evaluating modern information-management and computing styles—big data, NoSQL, MapReduce 
• Engineering high-scale, high-volume systems such as web applications, enterprise resource planning (ERP) packages, and control systems
• Establishing guidelines for different deployment and virtualization options such as standalone vs. multi-tenant, cloud-enabled vs. cloud-centric applications, and online vs. offline processing

3. Methods and tools: go with the flow or go your own way?

• Tailoring analysis, design, and evaluation methods such as Unified Process (UP), Quality Attribute Workshop (QAW), Attribute-Driven Design (ADD), Architecture Tradeoff Analysis Method (ATAM), and others
• Combining methods from different communities; for example, object-oriented analysis and design techniques, lean and agile practices, and architectural methods and notations
• Enforcing architectural decisions through architecturally evident coding styles, component interface design principles, or architectural patterns
• Managing software evolution and technical debt, enterprise architecture frameworks, and design for operations

4. Technical leadership: hard skills and soft skills

• Adopting agile collaboration practices when working with stakeholders, improvement approaches, and dealing with complicated situations
• Empowering project management with architecture—planning agile pregames, conducting architectural spikes and sprint zeros, managing technical risk, providing architectural coaching, establishing communities of practice, and supporting make-or-buy decisions
• Succeeding in hard-sell situations; for example, risk identification or assessing business value of refactoring and legacy-system modernization