Hacknot: Architecture Group anti-pattern

Hacknot has a piece on the Architecture Group anti-pattern. While I can see legitimate concerns, it is hard not to ascribe the problems raised as those facing any cross-organisational group. Having seen and worked on architecture groups in different settings I think they can work, but like everything else they must have rules:

- Membership should be open, anyone interested can attend.
- They should publish / blog the minutes of their meetings (seems obvious).
- They should help align technical approaches taken on different projects so that work is not replicated / projects are encouraged to use each other's libraries.
- They recommend, but not mandate.
- They should provide a resource that people can ask questions such as: We are thinking of solving X by doing Y, any thoughts?
- They should be actively developing new systems / libraries etc.