What Is Solutions Architect? Roles And Responsibilities 2023

Knowing these aspects, they will be able to design a suited digital solution. To successfully align IT solutions with business objectives, solutions architect must have strong leadership and communication skills, as well as both technical and business knowledge. As a solutions architect, you will need to understand the business side of the organization to understand which IT solutions will fit the company’s goals. Your leadership skills will be important for steering the overall process of identifying key business objectives and determining the requirements for each solution. Basically, they take separate requirements to the global company’s infrastructure and turn these requirements into real solutions.

As companies rely more and more on technology, there will be more demand for Solutions Architects. For example, if you want to make a healthcare app, it must comply with HIPAA. If you need to release a streaming service app, you should hold the content licenses and copyrights. Some non-functional needs also exist that point out how the software performs a specific action.

What is a solutions architect?

Those three sound the same, so they are often mistaken for each other and are even used interchangeably in discussions. It would be strange indeed if the sphere that generated the very profession wouldn’t make extensive use of solution architect deliverables. Here, these specialists make sure the product and the development personnel are on the same page as to the effective implementation and subsequent functioning of a new software solution. As we’ve listed a solution architect’s responsibilities, it would now be profitable to outline the essential skills required for a solution architect.

• Suppose, let us take an example – You are developing a medicine delivery app; the solutions architect will make sure the app should be HIPPA compliant.
• In other words, a solution architect looks at each piece of the tech puzzle both individually and all together, and then analyzes whether or not things are working well together.
• Solution architecture’s aim is to ensure that all their requirements are taken into account.
• In your free time, read books on modern computing approaches, say, edge computing, chaos monkey, and service mesh technologies, for example.
• The salary range for Solutions Architects varies based on several factors, including experience, geographic location, industry, and the complexity of projects they undertake.
• However, it’s the proven approach to become an IT solution architect, increase and acquire credibility.
• So, we can say that the product of a solution architect’s job is the set of technological solutions and the strategy of their implementation.

A solutions architect description places them somewhere in between the above-mentioned specialists. After the enterprise architect has determined what has to be done, the software solution architect specifies how it has to be done to address a certain business challenge. If the team follows the Agile methodology, the solution architect’s role is to support the development team, accompanying the project at the implementation stage.

What Are the Essential Skills of a Solutions Architect?

All software projects have to meet a number of non-functional requirements that describe the characteristics of the system. The solution architect’s role is to analyze all non-functional requirements and ensure that further product engineering will https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ meet them. Application solutions architects work closely with mobile app developers and other stakeholders to ensure timely project delivery. Businesses who need assistance with mobile app development can hire an application solutions architect.

They do this by analyzing the project, working with project managers, communicating with stakeholders, and keeping track of new tech trends. 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. 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 architect’s certification

Solutions architect knows programming, integrating, and testing software systems and related devices. The software development tools were supposed to reduce the effort of the SAs and therefore reduce their need for the role, however, that increase in efficiency has been far outstripped by new demand. There is a great deal of pressure in the US to move development to countries with cheaper labor. While the SA role could be outsourced, , there is some insulation because of the need to work closely with the Functional Analysts in the gathering and organization of requirements. The distributed software of the global world requires more effort on the part of the SA and increases their need. Perhaps the most important tool in the toolbox is a visual documentation language, such as UML.

This task extends beyond bureaucratic documentation—it is fundamental to ensure that all stakeholders clearly understand the nuances of the solution. By streamlining implementation and operation, these architectural artifacts become invaluable tools in driving project success. Familiarity with DevOps practices like continuous integration, continuous delivery (CI/CD), and infrastructure as code (IaC) is pivotal in the current software development and deployment landscape.

Technical Solutions Architect

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. A solution architect is a person who finds the best tech solution to clients’ business problems. They bridge business requirements and tech means developers need to use to meet these requirements. Architects speak both ‘technical’ language with developers and ‘business’ language with clients. A solutions architect also bridges communication between IT and business operations to ensure everyone is aligned in developing and implementing technical solutions for business problems.

So, having one or more credentials proves the expert’s proficiency in specific skills. Besides that, it’s important that solution architects consider the project from a long-term perspective and understand that the solution might need to scale and adapt to possible changes in the future. So, being the one who knows the ultimate target, they guide the development process accordingly. The enterprise architect has the broadest view of the company’s current state of architecture and goals.

Matching solutions with the corporate environment

The initial high-level design will need to be monitored to confirm that it is consistent and compared with the solution’s overall design. This is one crucial point, as there are many what is solution architect role different practices related to platforms, programming languages, and tools. The architect needs to determine which of the technologies will be most suitable for a particular project.

A technical architect also evaluates and selects the appropriate technical solutions and vendors, and ensures that they comply with the technical standards and regulations. A technical architect needs to have a strong knowledge and skills in the technical domain, as well as the ability to research and innovate new technologies and solutions. Looking for a way to build your skills and expertise as a solutions architect and add to your existing resume? Consider a course in software architecture to better familiarize yourself with the most common solution architectures. Or consider a specialization such as IBM’s for DevOps, Cloud, and Agile Foundations to learn some of the most popular concepts and methodologies for managing the development process.

What is a Solutions Architect?

They may also be responsible for managing project budgets, timelines, and resources, ensuring that the solutions they design are delivered on time and within budget. In addition to research on technologies and approaches critical to the architecture, there is often a review of patterns that might be useful to the architecture. Patterns are previously described and validated approaches that can be used to create portions of the solution.