IASA

To begin, let’s explore the various IT roles and their definitions. I do not claim that the following is an exhaustive list of IT architect roles, but simply a range of IT architecture roles in broad categories. I am not using the IASA or for that matter any other taxonomy on purpose as I wanted keep the discussion fairly independent of various influences or frameworks. Having said this, I am also not trying to define a totally new framework as there are several well-thought out methods and frameworks out there. The purpose of this paper is simply to outline various architecture roles and their relationship with Enterprise Architecture role.

User Experience or Presentation Architect – This person is responsible for the graphical user interface design or other presentation channel design such as mobile, kiosk or web. This person provides overall presentation design authority by engaging business users, analysts or application designers. There may be different variations on the role depending on the whether the focus is on technology or business aspects. For example, an organization may have its presentation architect focus more on usability aspects from business point of view such as work flow abilities or human usability aspects. While the technology focused version may focus on aspects like technology compatibility with various platforms, browser versions, internationalization etc.

Business Architect – Architects in this role may be called by many titles, such as Functional Architect or Business Process Architect. In some cases Business Analyst roles too may crossover into this role. Essentially, a Business Architect designs business processes or functional aspects of an IT design. IT systems often do not fully meet business requirements in their entirety and hence the growing influence or interest in such an architect profile. The renewed interest in BPM (business process management) related activities have resulted in growth of demand for experts in this area.

Application Architect – This is an architect who designs the software aspects of an IT system. The role is often called Software Architect or logical architect. Essentially, this person is going to analyze the business requirements and then convert them into logical software design so as to offer business functionality using technology capability. Depending on the nature of the business, software may also be offered as a turn-key solution or product, often creating an overarching solution to solve a specific set of problems. This may mean performing the role of software architect from business or solution perspective and such architecture roles may also be termed as Solution Architect. As you can imagine, presentation and business architects are required to work very closely with an application architect to ensure the alignment of presentation and business process requirements and design onto the logical software constructs of the IT system.

Technical Architect – This classification of architect role is probably contains the most variations. Essentially, this person is responsible for the core technical design aspects of the IT system which are not covered by business architecture or the application architecture. This may include off-the-shelf system software implementations, network design or hardware design. Depending on the nature of the business, this person may also be called a Middleware, System or Infrastructure Architect. Each variation subtly changes the focus of the respective job. For instance, Middleware Architects tend to focus on the plumbing of Application Servers, Enterprise Service Bus or Messaging layer etc. The Infrastructure or System Architects typically focuses on DataCenter focused hardware or network design Dedicated Network Architects can also be assigned to this architecture role. 

Data or Information Architect – To cover all the core aspects of IT design, I must mention the Data or Information Architect. There is a debate going on about the exact terminology to use with this role. Purists will often claim that, Data on its own means nothing and processing it into meaningful Information is more valuable for business. Hence the role of architect should be focused on Information and not on Data. Others counter that argument by claiming, Data is something you analyze and need to architect around to produce meaningful information. Other related roles are business intelligence, data mining or database design architects.

Service Architect – With the ever increasing popularity of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) it is not a surprise that, roles specific to SOA are in demand. Essentially, the philosophy of SOA is that IT systems designed in a modular and reusable fashion reduce the risk, time and cost of IT systems development. Hence, Service Architects provide a new and distinct dimension to the previously mentioned architecture disciplines. A Service Architect defines business or technical service specifications which can be developed as independent but reusable components. More lengthy discussions and definitions of SOA and Service Architecture are now available in popular literature.

In the second article in this series we will look at a totally different dimension of architecture roles based on organizational aspects.