Architecture

Architecture advocates for the system in the large. This includes the services, technical and standards with which the solution will interoperate, the infrastructure in which it will be deployed, its place in business or product family, and its roadmap of future versions. The architecture group has to ensure that the deployed solution will meet all qualities of service as well as the business objectives and be viable in the long term.

Solution Architect

About
The solution architect is responsible for maintaining the architectural integrity of the product and ensuring the success of the project by designing the foundations on which all the value can be realized. This includes defining both the organizational structure of the application and the physical structure of its deployment. In these endeavors, the solution architect’s goal is to reduce complexity, decrease coupling and regression effects, and increase the cohesiveness of components by partitioning the system into parts which can be built and tested independently. The resulting architecture is extremely important because it not only dictates how the system will be built going forward but also establishes whether the application will exhibit the many traits that are essential for a successful project. These include its usability, whether it is reliable and maintainable, whether it meets performance and security standards, and whether it can be evolved easily in the face of changing requirements.
Key Responsibility Areas
  1. Create and document design patterns and standards that reduce cost and defects and improve key quality attributes.
  2. Ensure all system software complies with established design and integration patterns and standards.
  3. Research and follow customer policies, requirements, and constraints for software development, and continuously monitor and adapt the solution to comply.
  4. Revise the components and patterns of the solution architecture package to communicate the changes to development and operations so that the product can evolve over time at lower costs and with reduced risk of defects.
  5. Plan product integration to ensure that environments are properly configured, and the product can be integrated to streamline the delivery of software.
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Business Unit Solution Architect

About
The Business Unit Solutions Architect is the primary role responsible for finding technical solutions to the operational needs of the business unit’s clients. This includes ensuring solutions will interoperate with enterprise/corporate services, infrastructure, technologies, and standards. The solution architect defines both the organizational structure of applications and data analytics and the physical structure of their deployment. The solution architecture guides selection of the technologies and design patterns used in applications and data analytics. The Solution Architect ensures identification of system quality attributes and ensures the relative importance of these attributes are used to make design tradeoff decisions. The solution architect ensures the business unit’s technical solutions will be viable in the long term and evolve as innovative technologies become available.
Key Responsibility Areas
  1. Create solutions that can evolve over time at low cost with a minimal risk of defects.
  2. Lead collaboration to establish patterns, practices and standards for system design.
  3. Analyze and review conformance to established architecture patterns and standards.
  4. Research and follow customer policies, requirements, and constraints for software development and adapt business units’ solution to match.
  5. Approve technology insertion for the business unit in conjunction with the CTO.
  6. Support business development and proposals as needed.
  7. Maintain and document knowledge of customer domain and all solutions within the business unit.

Process Guidance Version: 10.4