Who is the Enterprise Architect?
In an organization where there exists a software development team, there is a need for this team to be technically lead. This role is implemented by the Technical Architect.
As we start to see more than one software development team and Technical Architect the requirement for a Solutions Architect arises. The Solutions Architect should overlook many teams and ensure that technical integrity is maintained across all teams. The Solutions Architect follows the projects they are responsible for; from the requirements definition phase all the way through to the implementation.
The need for an Enterprise Architect then follows. This role does not cover a single software development team but rather spans across the enterprise.
The role of the Enterprise Architect encompasses a few key responsibilities and challenges:
- Understand the organization’s core business.
- Ensure the organization's goals and IT strategy are aligned.
- Ensure IT infrastructure never hinders the organization’s goals.
- Actively involved in design and maintenance.
- Continuous improvement of the organization’s architecture at the enterprise level.
- Identify changes in enterprise architecture as the organizations' requirements changes.
- Good understanding of the business requirements as this is necessary to guide architectural decisions.
- Development of IT standards and policies.
- Risk management and impact assessment of the architecture.
- Ensure the organization’s resources are utilized optimally.
- Identifying disruptive technology, which may be the technology which challenges the organization or the technology which can benefit the organization.
- Communicate at different levels of technical knowledge depending on the audience.
There are some key quality attributes which an Enterprise Architect should be able to identify. The Enterprise Architect should be able to analyze a business requirement and gather these key attributes which will allow him/her to architect the correct solution based on the business need.
Hope you learned something.
-R
