They will have a considerable level of power to affect not only the employees but also the board of directors, the executives, and of course, the stakeholders. It’s the creation of a framework that will solve problems and plot a course toward success after taking the issues into consideration. It’s a specialized job that involves quite a bit of analysis, internal and external investigations, surveys, studies, and so much more. The solution that was thought up to address this problem is someone who is capable of charting the path that a company was going to take with the highest likelihood of success. On top of that, this role needed to make sure that a project will actually put the company ahead of competitors. After that, the experts must pass through recertification to confirm their continued expertise and knowledge of the modern AWS technologies and innovative practices.
It was already mentioned that in many cases, a solution architect will act as support for project managers. In such cases, the architect will need to influence decisions made by the manager, which can include objecting to technology uses when necessary. To meet these and other business requirements, the Customer needed their QMS modernized with properly managed back-end infrastructure, consistently monitored to ensure their services are highly available. If you build landing pages, integrate small modules, or make minor improvements, you don’t need a solution architect.
Ensuring that the solution meets the needs of all its stakeholders
The solution architect’s role is to analyze all non-functional requirements and ensure that further product development will meet them. 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. Solution architects bring clarity to a business by understanding the current software domain and tailoring it in ways that improve technical and business performance. They are prominent figures in today’s business environment because more companies require complex software architectures to achieve their goals. The role of a solution architect is to ensure the product meets business requirements and requirements from other stakeholders.
To solve customer business challenges, we’ve assembled a team of 9 experts, including DevOps practitioners with deep expertise in IT structure management and software development. Our team has conducted in-depth analysis and built a SaaS-based architecture initiating automation and switching to electronic document management, complying with FDA and ISO requirements. Having a full plan of future software and a list of technologies is always better than having a bare idea. You have more chances to impress investors if you know what product you’re making and what problem it’s going to solve. A solution architect will match product requirements with ways to implement them and explain everything in clear business terms.
Frequently asked questions on solution architects
While a solution architect might not be able to guarantee that everything will go right, at the very least, fewer things will go wrong. A new solution needed to be introduced in order to curb such losses of resources, particularly in a field as competitive and as volatile as the tech industry. Being delayed can mean a lot of money lost for bigger entities while for smaller ones, it can mean complete failure. Both functional and non-functional requirements are written down in a project specification. After that, it would be a good thing to extract insights out of it and understand how it contributes to the improvement of the product or service. Break down bigger goals into smaller milestones and key results to keep your team focused and motivated.
The exam lasts 130 minutes and requires a registration fee, depending on the exam type. The minimum experience needed for this test is at least 1 year working in the field. The certificate is valid for 3 years and requires recertification once it expires. Their tasks usually begin with choosing the right technology for the business problem(s) and managing architectural concerns to ensure more productive and effective outcomes.
Solutions Architect vs. Enterprise Architect vs. Technical Architect
Successful solutions architects are usually curious, rational, analytical, and methodical—all of which are important traits for this job. Enterprise architecture, which we covered in a dedicated article, focuses on building complex enterprise ecosystems and solves high-level strategic issues. Enterprise architecture defines the strategic directions of the business architecture, which then leads to an understanding of what technology facilities are needed to support that architecture. 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. In general, solution architect roles and responsibilities include designing a solution architecture and implementing it in practice.
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. After developing a product roadmap, the solution architect is engaged in estimating the budget and introducing it to the stakeholders. Once everything is approved, SA traces the process of development and keeps clients tabs on the progress. During the development stage, the solution architect delves into each of the product areas.
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A solution architect accounts for budget, resources, and deadlines, and should be result-oriented and business-focused. Enterprise solution architecture is a set of integrated technologies and applications that help organizations resolve their business-specific issues and reach their objectives. Solutions architects will also be in regular communication with IT specialists and enterprise architects to develop and implement complex technology and business solutions. After solution architects have designed the correct solution, it’s their job to manage the various activities that are involved for a successful implementation. Kyle Barnes, senior director of IT integration and data strategy with Veeva Systems, explains that software developers, engineers and technical specialists can often ladder into a solutions architect career. The trick is to move from a more tactical outlook on problems to a strategic one.
It’s worth pointing that a solution architect is not the same as an enterprise architect or a technical architect. Those three sound the same, so they are often mistaken for each other and are even used interchangeably in discussions. A solution architect is a person placed in charge of identifying problems within a company, a particular project, or a group that is affecting the entity’s bottom line. Depending on the arrangement made by the individual companies, the job can be anywhere from simple investigation to full-on overhaul. Solution architects are critical to modern businesses due to their ability to bridge the gap between technical and business use cases. Companies operating across all sectors need a robust technology foundation; in many cases, technology represents the key differentiator for a company in terms of business performance against its peers.
How Solution Architects Affect Company Success
Usually, a product has a number of stakeholders that are both technical and non-technical specialists. Solution architecture’s aim is to ensure that all their requirements are taken into account. Stakeholders have to be regularly informed about product development processes, costs, and budgeting. These tasks are usually done by a solution architect who translates technical project details into a language that management and non-technical stakeholders can understand. Another popular solution architecture definition describes it as a document containing the specifications for enterprise software which has to be built to propel the organization’s business goals.
- For example, if you spot break-fix support cases, problem management, or complex projects that need a helping hand, you should volunteer.
- Over these years, we have gathered a top-skilled team of prominent experts, including software architects.
- Most solutions architects have spent at least a few years in software development.
- It’s like hiring a super-senior developer but with deep expertise in a specific field — healthcare, education, traveling, or any other.
- There are many solution architect certifications available to master a specific technology.
- This means that an infrastructure specialist helps grow and maintain the production side of a corporate software ecosystem, rather than software development itself.
A solutions architect is responsible for creating a comprehensive architecture for a software solution and providing strategic direction throughout the development process. A solution architect is sometimes confused with enterprise architect and software architect. This is because their positions hire ico developers sound similar and the responsibilities overlap partially. Yet, each role is essential for a project’s success and cannot be substituted by another position. At the first stage of a project, a solution architect gathers the requirements for a software solution from stakeholders.
How to Become a Solutions Architect
In addition to the project’s technical specifics, the architect must understand the business processes inside and outside the company and how it builds its corporate strategy and goals faces. As a result, we can say that a solution architect’s work consists of analytical work, not just technical work. As a rule, this person has industry-specific expertise, so he or she understands what stakeholders want and why they want it.
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Specifically, it communicates an idea of a product with business owners, top executives, and possibly customers to understand their pain points and requirements and define the future system’s right vision. Usually, it’s senior developers, team leads, and project managers who have skills required for a solution architect. They have the needed tech background, business expertise, and are excellent communicators. Basically, as soon as a software engineer starts thinking about business needs, they are on their way to becoming a solution architect. Besides picking the technologies, IT solution architects define the development stages the team will go through and help with calculating the product’s cost. As the solution architect knows the architecture components, they know what people — front end, back end, iOS, Android developers — they need to involve.
Why should I pursue a career as a solutions architect?
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. There is no set career path to becoming a solutions architect, however many candidates enter the position from a background in software development.