Archi­tects need soft skills in their day-to-day work. They are conti­nuously in contact with stake­holders, requirements engineers and develo­pment and quality assurance staff. They make design decisions based on information obtained from many different discus­sions, held with people with a wide range of interests. In this area of potential conflict, they must be able to identify the relevant important content for the decision to be made, and to present it in detail.

Commu­ni­cation of their actual decisions in a clearly under­standable manner is another challenge. Human traits are often an obstacle to objective commu­ni­cation, with the result that misun­derstan­dings and sensi­ti­vities can hinder the decision-making process and smooth coope­ration, and that conflicts can easily develop. This course speci­fi­cally addresses the typical work situa­tions of archi­tects in this context as the “hub of the wheel”, and provides pragmatic tools for enriching one’s own set of soft skills and appro­priately construc­tively coping with the challenges of an architect.