I've become a fan of America's Test Kitchen, a TV and book series about cooking, where they not only show how to cook a great Pork roast, they will try it 10 different ways and see which one works best. They end simply by describing the best way (decided by a set of tasters normally) and publish that recipe with a pre-amble about all of the disasters.
It occurred to me that when describing what a Software Architect does to non-technical people, I might start by saying "I'm the test kitchen for software development in my company; I try to solve a problem in numerous ways and then describe the one that worked best."
I see a lot of Architects unable to get their hands dirty in code; How do they really understand a new technology unless they are able to cook the perfect integration pattern in their favorite kitchen: Visual Studio 2008! I think what America's Test Kitchen does right is they document the process really well - what worked, what didn't and why. I know my Red Wine Sauce has improved immensely by using their books; If I could just communicate to my team why my Service Software Factory was designed the way it is!
Troy.