Differences between Enterprise Architects, Solution Architects and Technical Architects

Integration Architecture Get to know everything about what is Integration Architecture, what the key advantages are and how to visualize it in the best possible way. Technical architects tend to get the lowest rate out of the three. The average annual income of a specialized Java architect is indicated as $79,000. On the lower end, the starting salary for all three types hovers around $82,000 a year. However, an average income of around $111,000 seems to be the norm. Enterprise Architects of tomorrow must acquire five key traits to guide companies to success.

This is where technical solutions architects come into the picture. They will play a role in talking to the stakeholders as well, converting technical information into layman’s. Even though project development is not a part of a solutions architect’s role, they are held accountable when deadlines and resource management are brought into consideration. They are required to select the best solution and discard the one that does not fit in the process or business goals, well within time. Solutions architects bring a solid awareness of how software solutions impact the business picture of an organization.

Superior Communication

This can take the form of products or services, and involves integrating the software and hardware that will best meet requirements. The enterprise architect is the visionary of an implementation, responsible for ensuring that the architecture meets the organizations goals. They are responsible for interpreting the ask of the organization and constructing the high-level vision of the implementation. Although the enterprise architect often has a more technical background, they do rely on a team of both solution and domain architects to execute the implementation.

Technical architects are specialists in their field and need to be able to first visualize and then implement new technical concepts into an existing system. It is their responsibility to realize the IT project with a development team and define best practices and standards along the way. If many teams are involved in the process, you may need an IT solution architect who’ll manage software architects to produce a quality outcome. Solutions architect skills include technical knowledge, communication, and leadership skills. But their experience with commercial projects is the key to getting the job. For that, architects do some solution architecture—draw diagrams to understand which components are required for this app.

what does a solution architect do

But while vertical experience may help a solutions architect ramp up faster, it’s not necessarily crucial. With agility and creative thinking, a skilled and experienced solutions architect can quickly transfer their experience to your field. A solutions architect should be an empathetic listener who puts your organisation’s business vision foremost. Ensure that the candidate has a clear grasp of your short- and long-term goals to help build a collaborative relationship.

Solution Architect responsibilities include:

The companies that develop software on an industrial level hire solution architects who can communicate with their clients during contracts or guide the architecture from beginning to finish. A solutions architect should hold a specific skill set that’s enough to successfully craft, build, and guide the software development solution. Now, we will know what a solution architect does and his roles and responsibilities before and throughout the development process. Furthermore, a solution architect starts too soon in the project with a plan to achieve. Usually, he begins picking the right technology for the business issues and handling architectural concerns to ensure the outcomes are more effective and productive.

The roles and responsibilities that answer what solution architects do, as you would have reckoned, is fairly wide. In order to meet them, they would need to have the best skill sets in place. These individuals are responsible for engineering, creating software architecture, and implementing technology.

In addition to understanding information technology software, you’re required to comprehend corporate strategy and business goals. This position allows you to move between the technical aspects of your work and analyzing how your system fits into the overall project and company. A project may have many stakeholders who are both technical and non-technical specialists. As a systems solution rfp for software development architect, it is important to take all of their requirements and expectations for a project into consideration. This includes keeping the stakeholders informed about the different stages of a project and contacting them to discuss the process, budgeting and potential costs. The Solution Architect has the strategic role of designing and planning solutions in a technology environment.

Deep analytical skills

Looking back at my most successful implementations, I had some level of a great friendship with that customer. I genuinely enjoy talking to them, and when we’re not actually talking, I do miss these people. Even outside of the discussion of products or projects that they’re working on, I miss everyone just for the sake of having a general conversation. And even in talks about the projects they’re working on in their careers, there will always be a topic about the products that we use. It can be 30 minutes, it can be 5 minutes; it’s just a conversation; a person talking to another person, and I gain a lot of respect from this kind of approach.

what does a solution architect do

You don’t know which solution fits the enterprise ecosystem best. You need to forge a link between the existing enterprise architecture and the particular project. Solution architects will guarantee the solution meets the standards of your company environment. One of the most important challenges of software product development is meeting the stakeholders’ requirements. Usually, a product has a number of stakeholders that are both technical and non-technical specialists.

How to make your IT project secured?

In other words, businesses need digital transformation that will adjust processes to software solutions. Many programmers and developers are simply uninterested in handling ongoing requests from and reporting to customers. They’re very happy to leave those tasks to solutions architects so they can dig in and get the work done. At all stages, the solutions architect maintains open communication channels in both directions. They communicate with stakeholders and executives about the status of project development and further clarification of goals, objectives, and more. They’re also constantly communicating with developers, serving as a pipeline between these two ends.

Although the true list of non-technical elements depends on the software complexity, a general one would consist of performance, maintainability, security, usability, and scalability. The responsibility of someone in a solutions architect role is to ensure that all the non-functional requirements get met by the product engineers. Generally, businesses have operating systems, information context, and integration facilities. A solutions architect ensures that any new system that gets introduced fits into the current business environment. A solution architect is involved in a project at the very beginning. First of all, the architect analyzes the customer’s business goals related to the new product.

What tools do solution architects use?

  • AWS and Azure shapes libraries.
  • The Unified Modeling Language (UML)
  • Systems Modeling Language (SysML)
  • Business Process Modeling Notations (BPMN)
  • Model-Driven Architecture (MDA)
  • TOGAF and ArchiMate.

Founded in 2011, we’ve been providing full-cycle mobile and web development services to clients from various industries. 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? Provide specifications according to which the solution is defined, managed, and delivered.

Selecting the technology stack

A solution architect isn’t directly involved in project management but needs to ensure deadlines are met, and the appropriate resources are involved. This person should be experienced with how to orchestrate those business operations which contribute to a company’s ongoing success. Moreover, an architect should be well-informed about various technical specifications. Solution architects need to be comfortable with analysis on a variety of business levels.

A solution architect should know how to analyze and identify potential short-term and long-term risks that may lead to technical issues and hinder future app business operations. The tech architect approach directly relies on the solution architect’s technology stack. First, they craft a technical vision to exhibit how the software will meet the business requirements. A solution architect accounts for developing a complete architecture for a software solution and offering strategic direction all through the development phase. Solution architecture is the bedrock of every successful development effort. A company seeking to adopt such a framework should work toward matching their architecture, skills, resources with desired business results.

In other words, provide the infrastructure that will make the system efficient. They often interface with the executive leadership and need to be able to define and clearly communicate business goals in order to get stakeholders on board. It is their responsibility to align these business goals with the technological goals and the IT infrastructure of the organization. Technical architects can be in charge of leading large teams of developers and technical professionals.

what does a solution architect do

It’s like hiring a super-senior developer but with deep expertise in a specific field—healthcare, education, traveling, or any other. For solution architects, the business side of the product matters as much as the technical side. The main role of a solution architect is to ensure the product meets business requirements and requirements from other stakeholders. Prior to considering solution architecture, we recommend exploring enterprise architecture frameworks that combine both solution and enterprise levels. Certifications are intended to validate the skills and expertise of solution architects. So, having one or more credentials proves the expert’s proficiency in specific skills.

It must fit into the current enterprise architecture—the software the company’s been using before. But if you aim at enterprise-level solutions or want to grow your existing product, you may want an IT solution architect to lead the process. There are many different programming languages, frameworks, libraries, databases, architectural patterns, and standards. The responsibility of a solution architect is to pick the most suitable tools for a particular project. Next, an IT solutions architect helps to assemble a development team—define how many developers they need, as well as where each of them should start.

A lot of their time is spent coordinating ongoing activities and negotiating the needs of all involved parties. As the connecting piece between enterprise and technical architecture, they constantly move between different business layers. In a rapidly changing technology excel cryptocurrency prices environment, organizations face the need to transform their processes and systems to meet emerging business requirements. This digital transformation demands specific expertise and a set of practices to align business focus with technology solutions.

And… our rich experience in building applications proves that the presence of an SA in a project strongly contributes to high technical quality and value of product design and development. Some companies create the role when problems arise during dynamic product scaling or when an existing solution architecture no longer supports product development. Hiring a solution architect is indispensable when the technologies used are not serving the business goals anymore. You need to observe and analyze the situation within your company and development teams in order to figure out whether your product needs an SA or not. It definitely needs an SA when there is chaos within the project and your product team is losing clarity on its next steps.

While the enterprise architect focuses on the enterprise-level design of the IT landscape, solution architects are in charge of finding and introducing solutions to specific business problems. They also manage all activities that lead to the successful implementation of a new application. While solution architects engineer solutions for specific business problems, enterprise architects verify that the IT strategy is aligned with the organization’s mission. It is their job to analyze business properties as well as the external environment and define all business needs. Next, they propose a combination of building blocks that provides the best possible fix. This process is very detail-oriented and serves as a connecting piece between enterprise architecture and technical architecture.

Practical insights on how to become data-driven, agile-minded, and forward thinking. Everything you need for quick time-to-value and long-term success through EA. Uncover the value of a successful EA practice, and how that translates to your organization.

The solution architect ensures the outcome fulfills all the business needs and stakeholders’ requirements. A solution architect is a person who comes up with the best tech solutions to clients’ business issues. Additionally, bittrex review a solution architect exercises a leadership role over a project manager . Such a role presupposes working closely with a PM to make sure resources, plans, and strategies are in tune with the project’s objectives.

Do AWS Cloud Projects to Gain Hands

For me, coming from a sysadmin background, I already had a very strong base of Linux, networking, and programming. I just had to add cloud technologies there and add all the new cool stuff that the cool kids play with these days. On the customer side, there will be different types of architects that you’re talking to, including me, and some mid-level managers to c-levels that are — we can call them agents of change. They’re the ones moving needles to upgrade their enterprise solutions from a legacy to more modern architecture; to move fast, and fail small, and deliver better solutions. Enterprise architects also need to be comfortable with communicating the value of new IT strategies to the executive leadership team and stakeholders.

Out of all IT architects, they are required to have the best grasp of the company’s IT landscape in relation to business outcomes. That is why this role requires a high level of awareness in regard to industry trends and enterprise-grade solutions that boost productivity and increase competitiveness. After solution architects have designed a solution for an existing problem, it is their job to manage the tasks and activities that are involved with its successful implementation.

Solution architect roles in the software process shouldn’t be underestimated. The solution architect role is absolutely essential in complex enterprise environments, where solution architecture must align with multiple products’ needs and business goals. In such environments, the SA is responsible for forming a well-functioning ecosystem that fits with legacy software and uses appropriate technology. Product development is a complex process that requires the involvement of many IT and business specialists, all working together in order to create a great digital product. Just like enterprise architects, solution architects need excellent communication skills.

As such, his work impacts multiple aspects of business operation. This scope of work requires a particular set of skills that can make the process efficient and productive. Quite often, an SA needs to present their ideas to the development team or product stakeholders. When there is resistance to change within the product team, they need to be able to convince others to follow their recommendations. When necessary, an SA must tell the developers that they’re missing tech requirements or going in the wrong direction. When comparing all three IT architects, the distinction between an enterprise architect vs. a solution architect usually creates the biggest confusion.