Architect

One who describe the architecture of system in sufficient detail to enable work to be planned and builders to build, or lower level architects to elaborate.

Architect role

The list of roles below has been agreed by the ISEB as sufficient for examination purposes. The focus of each role is evident from the definitions of levels and domains of architecture:

·         Enterprise architect: defines principles, policies and plans that cover several solutions to several business problems.

·         Solution architect: describes the structure of solution to a business problem, which may include several applications and technologies.

·         Software architect: describes how a single application is built from software modules, at a fine-grained level.

·         Business architects: focus on business architecture; their principal concerns is the functions and processes of the business.

·         Data architects: focus on data architecture; their principal concern is to analyse and control data stores and data flows through the definition and maintenance of meta data.

·         Applications architects: focus on applications architecture; their principal concern is the modularity of applications and data that flows between them.

·         Technical/infrastructure architects: focus on technical/infrastructure architecture.

Enterprise architect goals

The list of goals below has been agreed by the ISEB as sufficient for examination purposes.

·         Improved alignment of business and IT

·         Improved IT cost-effectiveness

·         Business agility

·         Technical agility.

·         Long term planning: enablement of strategically beneficial IS/IT work.

·         Vendor and technology independence (portability)

·         De-duplication of applications and technologies

·         Interoperability of applications and technologies

·         Simpler systems and systems management.

·         Improved procurement.

Solution architect goals

The list of goals below has been agreed by the ISEB as sufficient for examination purposes. The solution architect has the goals of an enterprise architect, plus the following:

·         Timeliness of IS/IT project deliverables

·         Cost of IS/IT project deliverables

·         Quality of IS/IT project deliverables

·         Solution-level risk identification and mitigation

·         Application integration and data integrity

·         Conformance of solution to non-functional and audit requirements

·         Conformance of solution to principles, standards, legislation.

·         Effective interaction between managers and technicians.

·         Governance of detailed design to architecture principles and standards.

Architect knowledge and skills

The list below has been agreed by the ISEB as sufficient for examination purposes.

·         Holistic understanding of business and technical goals.

·         Holistic understanding of business and technical environment

·         Broad technical knowledge – including current trends.

·         Broad methodology knowledge

·         Analysis of requirements and problems

·         Innovation.

·         Leadership.

·         Stakeholder management.

·         Communication, political and soft skills.

·         Awareness of project management and commercial risks and issues.