If you've worked in any normal software development shop that has some sort of hierarchy, you know that many times the architects can sometimes just sit in their ivory tower office and dictate decisions without really integrating themselves into a team. This can be very detrimental to a team's morale especially if there are disagreements as to the direction the architect is going. How can you try and bring them down from their ivory towers?
I've tried a couple of things which have worked, not each time, but enough where it's been useful. The first is to force them to do things by giving them action items in a meeting. It sounds a bit underhanded and perhaps it is but in a meeting with plenty of people there, most people will not decline to do things. Take advantage of that and give the architect some practical pieces that need to be done. Even if they are simple, it will help you out both in terms of your work load and with bringing the architect into the team.
The other is somewhat similar but is done one-on-one, find practical questions to ask the architect. If you are having problems configuring an application server or using a library, use the architect's knowledge along with your Google searches. Again, it might seem simple but it will help them see what you are doing and what is left to be done.
Of course, sometimes architects don't want to be involved in the day-to-day projects and if that's the case, there isn't anything you can do but hopefully that isn't the case or you will have more trouble than you know.
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architects, architecture