Blog post | Luc Véronneau on Building Software That Matters
Q&A with Solutions Architect Luc Véronneau
Written by the DSH team*
Une version française de ce billet a été publiée ici.
The Data for Society Hub (DSH) team spoke with Luc Véronneau to learn more about his role as a solutions architect, his involvement in this project, and his team’s objectives for the coming year.
What is your role within the DSH?
Luc Véronneau (LV): I was in contact with CIRM [Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montréal] long before the DSH appeared. My role was along the lines of a “technical specialist.” I was doing the work of a solutions architect by discussing the Observatory of Montréal’s Narratives (which has since been subdivided into two projects) and by working on the solution for Commun Axiom, which is an idea that I came up with.
Currently, my official title is “solutions architect,” but what I do goes beyond that. I’m responsible for the development team, which means that I mentor the developers and review their code. I also create the architecture and designs for the software and guide the team when it comes to implementing design patterns.
This can involve selecting technology stacks and providing guidelines for their implementation, because the developers we have right now are students. They don’t have as much experience as I do, so I usually have to go through their code and give them pointers. A large part of my work is helping them. That being said, they are more specialized than me, so we gain a lot in other aspects by having them work with us.
Another part of my job is meeting with other technical leaders of Montréal in Common to keep up with what they’re doing, [as well as] with architectural guidelines and restrictions. I also keep in touch with the partners and with different team members to stay up to date on projects that might work with our own technological initiatives. This involves extended partnerships with people who aren’t directly related to the DSH, but who could be interested in using certain solutions on a long-term basis. We’re not building software that can only respond to the needs of a specific group of organizations; the point is to have something that will be accessible to a larger audience.