What does a solution architect do?

What is a solution architect?

Infrastructure Architect is the practice of designing, defining, and managing solutions related to specific business problems.

The solution designer is responsible for organizing training and creating technical conclusions for specific solutions.

In addition to these features, others add infrastructure design to the concept. This role becomes important for organizations that maintain complex local infrastructure infrastructure to support operations.

What is a business architect?

Enterprise architecture, which we cover in a dedicated article, focuses on creating complex business ecosystems and solving high-level strategic problems. Enterprise architecture defines the strategic directions of enterprise architecture, which then leads to an understanding of the technology facilities that are needed to support that architecture. In other words, the business architect defines what needs to be done, while the solution architect decides how to do it.

The business architect has the broadest view of the current state of business architecture and its goals. It is this expert who is in charge of creating a strategic plan for the implementation of technical changes. This person works closely with senior executives and decision makers while demonstrating the business value of the suggested technical initiatives.

What is a software designer?

A software developer or designer manages engineering and software design issues. There are detailed copies that explain the role of the software designer and the importance of this position for the company’s success.

Unlike solution designers, software designers generally don’t deal with financial and organizational issues. This person focuses on all aspects of software engineering: development, implementation, maintenance, support and reform in a specific project. The software architect works closely with the development team and controls the entire development process. So, continuing with the previous example, the software designer decides exactly what to do and how to keep the results.

After discussing the preferences of the other two roles, it can be seen that the position of the solution designer lies between the top level, business-oriented business designers and technical and design programmers.

The solution architecture describes how the different components of business, information, and technology architectures are used in a particular solution. Because the solution architecture focuses more on the details and technologies of the solution to address a specific business problem, it provides a channel between the business architecture and the technical architecture. The latter focuses only on technical issues. An effective approach for companies is to combine business architecture activities with technical architecture activities and solutions.

Solution architecture and its main processes

A well-built solution architecture helps teams develop the product on time and on budget and ensures it solves the problem for which it was designed. So what tasks does the solution architecture perform?

Solutions for the business environment

Typically, companies already have operating systems, an information environment, and integration requirements. The architecture of the solution helps to ensure that a new system adapts to the existing business environment. To accomplish this task, a solution architect must understand how all parts of the business model interact, including processes, operating systems, and application architectures. By understanding these processes, they will be able to design a specific solution that best suits their environment.

Meet the requirements of all stakeholders

One of the biggest challenges in software product development is meeting the requirements of stakeholders. Typically, a product has a number of interested technical and non-technical specialists. The goal of the solution architecture is to ensure that all your requirements are considered. Stakeholders should receive regular information on product development processes, costs and budgets. These

tasks are usually performed by a solution architect who translates the technical details of the project into a language that management and non-technical agents can understand.

Excellent communication skills

A vital part of the solution architect’s expertise is communication. Because this role involves negotiating with stakeholders, understanding the needs of all parties, managing risk, and delivering the product, a lack of communication skills can create a real bottleneck. The position requires close collaboration with business and software architects, business analysts, and project teams. Therefore, an experienced solution architect must be able to listen, advise, empathize and explain.

Deep analytical skills

Designing a solution requires understanding the workings of different parts of the business. The architect must recognize the corporate strategy and carry out all the business processes that define how a company achieves its strategic objectives. But the architect must also understand the technical specifications. As a result, solution architects are constantly engaged in analytical work and move between different layers of business.

Project knowledge and resources

While the solution designer is not directly involved in project management, it must be avoided by deadlines and resources. Solution architects need to be able to make decisions about which solutions are most beneficial and appropriate in a particular situation. They need to focus on business results and understand how to achieve them in the given time and resources.

In addition, it is important that solution architects consider the project from a long-term perspective and understand that the solution may need to add and adapt to possible future changes. Therefore, being the one who knows the main goal, they guide the development process accordingly.

Certificate of solution architecture

Certificates are intended to verify the skill and expertise of solution architects. They evaluate their knowledge, abilities and experiences. Thus, one or more competencies confirm the expertise of an expert in a particular skill.

Many certification platforms, apart from the exam itself, offer training courses, learning materials and practice tests. Other resources can also help organize and create Udemy, Coursera, or MeasureUp. However, the test can be taken without prior preparation – only a thorough knowledge of architectural concepts and principles and extensive operational experience in the industry is required.