With the quickly changing technological environment, various organizations would face the requirement of transforming their systems and processes into meeting upcoming business needs. The digital transformation would look for specific expertise along with various practices for aligning the focus on business with suitable technology solutions.
Solution architecture belongs to several vital practices executed before the beginning of tech solution development. Let us discuss the adoption of solution architecture practice to assist in solving different types of business problems.
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Understanding solution architect
Solution architecture is the practice of describing, designing, and managing solution engineering for various kinds of business problems.
A solution architect would be your best option to lead the practice and introduce the overall vision for providing a specific solution.
While you could manage the practice in-house, numerous companies could provide solution architecture consulting as a set of services. These terms have been inclusive of various aspects to be discussed below.
Role and responsibilities of solution architects
The job of the solution architect is to focus on solution-level decisions and analysis of their effect on the overall business outcomes and aims. Similar to the architect in the construction industry developing a blueprint of a building, anyone in this position should have adequate knowledge of available technologies suggesting the best solution according to the incoming needs and prevalent atmosphere.
Therefore, it could be said that the product of the job of a solution architect would be to the set of technological solutions along with a suitable strategy of their implementations.
After the development of a strategic vision of the product technically, the solution architect would be required to determine the budget and present it to various stakeholders. When you have agreed upon everything, the solution architect would monitor the development process along with informing the stakeholders about the progress.
The responsibilities of the solution architect would derive the processes in practice directly through –
- Analysis and documentation needs
- Analysis of the technology environment
- Analysis of the specific enterprise
- Creation of a solution sample
- Setting up a collaboration structure
- Controlling the solution development
- Participating in the selection of technology
- Support to project management
Most of these responsibilities would need a role of leadership from solution architects. It would be pertinent to mention here that the solution architect would support various activities to make sure the resources, planning, and risk recognition stay along with the solution aims. You could gather more information at www.valueblue.com/.
Skillset and background of the Solution architects
When you recognize the importance of solution architecture in the project of your company, the next step would be to source and hire the best person for the role.
Find below the core skills of a good solution architect.
- Adequate experience and background in the technical arena
When providing technical advice to the management and engineering teams, a solution architect should possess a technical background with eight years of work experience in one or more IT areas inclusive of but not limited to the following –
- Cloud development, IT architecture, and infrastructure
- Business analysis
- Software and engineering architecture design
- Product and project management
- DevOps
These would be vital for choosing a suitable solution architect.
- Exceptional communication skills
Communication has been an integral aspect of the competence of a solution architect. It would encompass understanding the requirements of various parties, negotiating with all stakeholders, delivery of products, and managing risks. If the solution architect lacks effective communication skills, it would be a hamper to the company.
They would need to work with enterprise and software architects, project teams, and business analysts. Therefore, an experienced solution architect would advise, listen, explain, and empathize.
- Management skills for resources and projects
A solution architect would not be involved directly in project management, given resources, and accounting for deadlines. The solution architects should decide about the beneficial and worthless solutions in specific situations. They should focus on business results. They should also have an adequate understanding of achieving them within the stipulated time and resources.
- Analytical skills
Your understanding of the working of different parts of the business would be imperative to design a solution. The solution architect should recognize the corporate strategy. It would be in his or her best interest to realize various business processes defining how a company would achieve its specific strategic goals. However, the architect should understand the technical specifications. Consequently, the solution architect should continuously deal with analytical work and move between several layers of business.
- To sum it up
The solution architect should consider the project from a long-term perspective. It would be in their best interest to understand that the solution would require scaling and adapting to prospective changes in the future. Therefore, their knowledge of the ultimate target would guide the development process in the best possible way.
