Six Key Roles & Responsibilities of a Solutions Architect

A Solutions Architect will essentially need to take some key responsibilities during the course of a project. Here are 6 key responsibilities/ roles that I think are the most important ones -

• Solution delivery - The Solutions Architect (SA) is responsible for the delivery of a particular solution on the date committed. At times, this is shared by a Project Manager, but most often, the Solutions Architect is responsible
• Project Timelines/ Schedule - Its an SA's duty to make sure the project is progressing in the right pace. The SA typically will work with the Project Manager to accomplish this task
• Solution Architecture - The SA takes complete responsibility of the Solution Archtiecture. Though, in the process, the Solutions Architect might consult the Integration/ Infrastructure architects, the end product is owned by the SA
• A Consultant - The SA also dons the role of a consultant during the early phases of the solution, when the SA needs to gather requirements and work with the sales team to put together a document in return to a Request For Proposal (RFP) from the customer
• Subject Matter Expert - The Solution Architect is also a key person who understands the solution and the domain/ industry well. The Solution Architect needs to be a Subject Matter Expert (SME) to be able to understand the customer's requirement and also suggest alternatives to better the solution and alleviate the challenge/ issue being addressed
• A Leader - A Solution Architect needs to be a leader who can efficiently lead a team of developers, project manager and effectively work with other business units in the company and the customer team in the creation of the solution. The SA should be able to work with the customer and help them envision the solution value, and how it will benefit them in the longer term

These are just six of the key responsibilities that come to my mind. Should you have more thoughts here, do mention them in the comments and your name!...I shall update the post with your comments.

Solution Architecture - How is this different from Enterprise and IT Architecture?

There was a gentleman who recently asked me a question in the context of my current job profile. He asked me

"What is your role as a Solution Architect, and how is the Solution Architect's role any different from an IT Architect or an Enterprise Architect?"

I did explain him the differences and the nuances of each type of architecture. But I also promised to post an article on the same. Hence this.

I forgot to cover this as one of the "most (ab)used words" in my previous article. The words "Enterprise Architect", "IT Architect", etc have been highly misused by people. No offense meant - Companies have used this as a "designation" rather than a "role" in some cases. I hence thought of clarifying these so-called ambiguous terms by outlining the differences between each type of architecture in the context of an Enterprise Architecture. (in conformance with The Open Group standards and definitions)



EA - Enterprise Architecture
EBA - Enterprise Business Architecture
EITA - Enterprise IT (EIT) Architecture
EITIA - EIT Information Architecture
EITAA - EIT Application Architecture
EITTA - EIT Technology Architecture
EITSIA - EIT Software Infrastructure Architecture
EITHIA - EIT Hardware Infrastructure Architecture
SA - Solution Architecture

I hope this has been useful.