Solutions architects are responsible for the design, implementation, and management of enterprise-level IT solutions. They guide IT teams and ensure software solutions are built with the organization’s business objectives and objectives in mind. For solution architects, the business side of the product matters as much as the technical side.

After developing a strategic technical vision of the product, the solution architect is involved in estimating the budget and presenting it to the stakeholders. Once everything is agreed upon, he or she monitors the process of development and keeps stakeholders informed about the progress. The enterprise architect has the broadest roles and responsibilities of solution architect view of the company’s current state of architecture and goals. It is this expert who is responsible for creating a strategic plan for implementing technical changes. This person works closely with top-level executives and decision-makers as he or she demonstrates to them the business value of suggested technical initiatives.

Selecting the project technology stack

I work with government agencies and one of the solutions we’re currently working on is a COVID response project for New Zealand. To create, suggest, and contribute a COVID response solution is pretty amazing; because for many people at this time, getting government support seamlessly is very helpful. You need to have a networking understanding, such as, how routes work, how software-defined networking works inside a cluster, the logging solutions, the cloud technologies — so, it does become a wide skills requirement.

• You get efficient and effective solutions, reducing waste and improving productivity across your company.
• One of the primary set of tasks that answers what a solution architect does is meeting the individual stakeholders’ requirements.
• Typically, these requirements come in from both technical and non-technical stakeholders where both have to be accounted for in the project.
• Since a solutions architect works closely with many different segments of your organization, project management, and communication skills are vital to the position.
• I always treat my customer, not just like another customer I ‘deal with’.
• A solution architect is responsible for the definition, planning and implementation of a solution.
• Or someone who would overlook the architecture from start to finish.

Probably this is the reason why working with off-shore companies is quite a considerable task. A solution architect should have strong relational skills, good at identifying areas of improvement, and be able to negotiate between the IT team and management. They should also have good relationships with IT vendors and providers interacting with the company to ensure seamless service. The solutions architect works at the intersection of technology and business, so they need to be analytical and pragmatic in planning and problem-solving. They are usually practical individuals with strong interpersonal skills. Tech is about what you can practically do and less about what you read in college.

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The prerequisites for attaining the ITIL certification are the ITIL Expert Certificate and over five years of experience in leadership, managerial, or high-level advisory roles. Solution Architects are highly valuable assets in any enterprise, but their significance becomes more distinct in large-sized companies that require a robust solution architecture framework. If you’re already an IT architect, hopefully, you have a better understanding of your peers that are working hard to help put the systems you help create to good use.

It’s important to learn how different technologies interact with each other, understand their limitations, and understand what works well together. You can write your own blog, contribute to open-source projects or start building something yourself. Analysis and decomposition of the company’s business processes, description of business logic, translation of client requirements into terms of product requirements, as well as building a product development roadmap. A solution architect is working closely with a variety of professionals and teams within the company to deliver the ultimate flexible, extensible and workable product. He must know how the architecture of each module of the system is arranged, how each element of the project works, and how everything is interconnected into a single ecosystem.

Best Practices to Define Business Capability Maps

The solution architect is MVP when it comes to deciding how the ins and outs of the project are going to work. Understanding how to achieve such solutions and goals according to their given timeframes and available resources. Understanding how different parts of the business operation are connected with each other and how business processes achieve their goals. Analyze the impact of the solution on the state of the business’ goals and direct outcomes of solution implementation.

There is no need to mix these roles to avoid problems such as micromanagement. While the skill sets that we have mentioned above are crucial in nature, the solutions architects will also need to have a knack for clear communication. As a part of everyday activities, they will have to interact with developers, managers, project teams, and software architects plus the different stakeholders. For this level of extensive collaboration, it is crucial that they are able to share the vision and updates around the project in a way that every individual stakeholder understands and responds to. As solution architecture focuses more on details and technologies to address a specific business problem, it provides a channel between enterprise architecture and technical architecture.

When Do We Need A Solutions Architect?

To be successful as a solution architect, you should be able to integrate any updated specifications and requirements into the systems architecture. An outstanding solution architect should be able to explain complex problems to management in layman’s terms. Solution architects are one of several domains https://globalcloudteam.com/ that form the pillars of IT. As one of a few IT experts and leaders whose goal it is to develop enterprise-wide infrastructure plans and projects to achieve goals, improve systems and manage solutions. They will also need to document and share best practices and advocate for process improvements.

Solutions architects outline the features of the future solution and map out the phases of its development and implementation. Being generally an extremely useful summand of success in any sector of the modern economy, solutions architects are must-haves in the following industries. Industry 4.0 which is propelling our world into the high-tech tomorrow, has brought forth a whole gamut of novel technologies and concepts. The above solution architect’s responsibilities list can be supplemented with further duties depending on your objectives, team composition, and other factors.

Hiring a Solution Architect? Here’s What to Look For

Digital transformation needs businesses to think over what value they are delivering to their customer today and what they will have to deliver later. Now these decisions cannot be taken by keeping business and technology in silos. This is also where you will need the help of a technical solutions architect. Moreover, they should have the best risk mitigation plans in place. Considering how nimble and agile the modern day enterprises have become, risk management has become one of the most crucial solution architect responsibilities of the current time. An individual who has been able to ace this skill will be able to best meet the “fail-fast” mindset of the modern day startups.