During the development process, there are usually several stakeholders who are both technical and non-technical. The solution architect should consider all software development requirements and provide updates about the development process, expenses, etc. Simply put, solution architecture is a high-level description of a software product in the context of the problems it solves. In other words, solution architecture shows how a system and its specific features help a company reach its determined business goals. The role of a solution architect is to ensure the product meets business requirements and requirements from other stakeholders. The primary role of a solution architect is to ensure the product meets business requirements and requirements from other stakeholders.
Solutions architects will work with the whole application landscape, but not exclusively. The main difference between a solutions architect and a software architect is their main focus. The solution architect’s focus is on developing and documenting solutions for specific architectural issues intended to enable a particular business outcome.
Training and Certifications for the Solutions Architect role
This digital transformation demands specific expertise and a set of practices to align business focus with technology solutions. In the last decade, the demand for solution architects has exploded due to the broad set of skills they bring to a project. Solution https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ architects are specialists who deal with complex tasks while delivering value for both businesses and software vendors. Their relevance is increasing in a world where solutions are the conjunction of technology, resources, skills, and business goals.
If you need to present your future product or solution to investors or stakeholders, a solution architect will identify the best technologies for the product and give a reason for it in plain language. Digital transformation is about business translating its core offline operations to online. Such a process needs linking technologies with business needs and perspectives. When you are uncertain about what solution can be integrated into an enterprise ecosystem. A solution architect is a person who looks for the best possible solution to meet the standards of your company environment.
Solution architect job description
A lead architect needs to have a high level of leadership and management skills, as well as the ability to influence and negotiate with senior stakeholders and sponsors. Solution architecture is the underpinning for any IT project, regardless of whether you actually adopt this practice or not. By deliberately introducing solution architecture, you build the framework that aligns technology, resources, and skills with defined business goals. Digital transformation requires businesses to reconsider either how they deliver value to their customers or what they will eventually deliver.
A solution architect is in charge of leading the practice and introducing the overall technical vision for a particular solution. If you are considering digital transformation or thinking about the solution to fit your current enterprise system, we recommend exploring the enterprise software services we provide. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us for a free consultation. Such a transformation demands specific expertise and skills to make the software solution correspond to the business needs and operations.
What are the different types and levels of solution architecture roles and responsibilities?
Every project has a constraint that keeps varying from one type of project to the other. The most common project constraints incorporate – Money, time, risk, limitation, and licensing. Uncover the value of a successful EA practice, and how that translates to your organization. Next, the requirements must be validated and assessed to meet the necessary criteria. In terms of organization structure, would you think Solution Architecture team should be under Enterprise Architecture or as a standalone unit in par with Enterprise Architecture?
- In addition, you can channel all your energy into your business needs, and your vendor will take care of the recruitment process and will offer you the best specialists to choose from.
- The highest credential is the ITIL Master for those professionals who work in IT service management and have extensive experience with ITIL practices.
- The tech architect approach directly relies on the solution architect’s technology stack.
- Your leadership skills will be important for steering the overall process of identifying key business objectives and determining the requirements for each solution.
- Also, the business aspect of the solution for the architect is as important as the technical one.
- Unlike a developer, an architect does not think about the interaction of classes, but about the interaction of solution components – applications, web services, and so on.
Being a project leader cannot be easy, but solution architects are masters at this. They are responsible for creating a comprehensive architecture for your specific software solution and providing strategic advice and direction throughout the development process. To perform a solution architect’s role, one needs to complete a technical education and practical experience across every central area of software development process and hardware engineering proficiency.
Evolving Live Solutions
Entry-level employees make an average of about $76,000 a year, with reported incomes ranging from $75,000 to $160,000. In many cases, the business will not recognize the full extent of the challenge. It is the SA’s responsibility to set engagement objectives and scope, develop work plans solutions architect responsibilities and coordinate activities across multiple project workstreams. First, SAs look closely at how the different elements of business, information, and technology can be applied to solve a specific problem. Technology advances happen fast, and industry-toppling changes can happen in hours.
There’s no way to answer these questions without linking technology and business perspectives, which is squarely in a solution architect’s wheelhouse. Besides that, it’s important that solution architects consider the project from a long-term perspective and understand that the solution might need to scale and adapt to possible changes in the future. So, being the one who knows the ultimate target, they guide the development process accordingly. While a solution architect doesn’t directly get involved in project management, accounting for deadlines and given resources is inevitable.
Frequently asked questions on solution architects
Business owners often think about effectiveness, productivity, cutting costs, optimization, etc, while software engineers worry more about specific engineering challenges. Business operations gather and employ the data, while IT obtains, stores, and derives that information from varied database resources. In other words, they answer for determining procedures and technologies to be applied in collecting, structuring, storing, and accessing enterprise information. There is a wide variety of certification platforms available that offer training, access to plenty of learning materials, tests to practice the knowledge, etc.
So, this specialist should be able to clearly explain, understand everyone’s point of view, listen, advise, and influence. The concept of a solution architecture is rather complex and includes many aspects required to create a custom software solution with a specific purpose. That’s why there are several subtypes of architecture that handle various functional and non-functional requirements and aspects. For example, they include business, information, security, system, technology, and so on. A solution architect will help to fill the communication gap between technical and non-technical specialists.
Solutions Architect Salary and Hourly Rate
A solution architect manages the whole dev team, including the project manager, and usually works with the PM closely to ensure the development processes align with the project’s objectives. Someone will be needed for projects where there are a lot of uncertainties and multiple risks, and different products have to be implemented. That someone can be a business solution architect from a reliable IT consulting company with his/her advanced technical skill set. The roles and responsibilities that answer what solution architects do, as you would have reckoned, is fairly wide.
