There is a belief that “software architecture” only involves designing the “big picture” of how software is built. For example, drawing boxes and arrows how microservices integrate, or how larger modules of a code base should be organized and coupled together.
I beg to differ. I think of architecture simply as “how to organize and associate technical components” where the term “technical component” is left explicitly vague. Just like defined above, a technical component can be a microservice, or a module. But it can equally be how functions call each other, or even the order of how sub-components (if conditionals and for loops) in a function are written. That is, I think of architecture as concept that applies both at grand scales and micro scales. Sort of like a fractal.
I believe that every engineer has the role of an architect, but simply at different scales. This is why the article Scaling the Practice of Architecture, Conversationally by Andrew Harmel-Law is so useful. It talks about ways to push architectural decisions out onto all engineers.