Role of software solution architect

A custom or tailored solution is a must in the tough business competition today. Moreover, for a tailored software solution to effectively work, scale, and meet the set business requirements, it must have carefully thought out architecture accounting for a lot of customer and technical nuances.

In most custom software development services, most of the members of the development team are self-explained and straightforward. For instance, a programmer is the one who writes the code, the QA specialist does the testing, and a project manager manages the whole process. However, some projects require a solution architect as well. What exactly is a solutions architect?

A solutions architect is responsible for building a comprehensive architecture for software and provides strategic direction all throughout the process of development. The architect has to ensure that the new solution will fit into the current architecture of the organization, from the business, technical, user, and other viewpoints. As implied by the job title, a solutions architect focuses primarily on solution-level decisions and evaluating their impact on the business objectives and outcomes of a business.

Mostly, the roles and responsibilities evolve around making certain that the solution aligns with the resources of the company, the identification of the risks, and planning. For a solutions architect to design, build, and lead the development successfully, he or she should have these particular skill sets. The solutions architect, to be able to provide the engineering and management teams with technical advice, should have a technical background and experience of at least eight years in one or more Information Technology fields, including but not limited to:.

Designing software requires an understanding of the way that different business aspects work hand-in-hand. The solutions architect should recognize the business strategy and realize all processes that define how the company achieves its strategic goals. However, the architect should also understand tech specifications. As a result, the professional has to deal with analytical work constantly and move between the different layers of the organization.

A critical part of the competence of the architect is communication. Taking into account that this role entails making negotiations with stakeholders, understanding the needs of all parties involved, risk management, and the delivery of the product, a lack of communication skills could create a true bottleneck. There are many components that influence and affect the solution, which is why the Solution Architect must ensure constant and consistent evaluation of every aspect, as minor as it may seem, to understand what is valuable and discard what may be insignificant.

Solution construction and management: Solution Architects are capable of shaping, designing and managing a solution comprehensively. To achieve this, Solution Architects must be assertive, responsible and multi-taskers to ensure the solution is satisfactorily built and managed. People skills: Solution Architects must maneuver and manage business requirements and expected outcomes from numerous groups that work in the solution.

Resourc e management: Solution Architects must be capable of using resources efficiently and effectively. Resource management is crucial to staying within the budget, meeting deadlines, and providing a well-rounded solution without hiccups, which is why Solution Architects are critical in this area.

Given the strategic place that Solution Architects hold, their technical background and experience prior to entering this role must be evaluated and meet a specific set of needs. As far as technical background, Solution Architects come from a variety of fields including computer science, information technology, software engineering, and other areas related to technology. For experience, Solution Architects are oftentimes required to have practical skills and knowledge in:.

There are a number of architecture roles in the IT market, but the three roles with the biggest resonance are Enterprise Solution Architect, Solution Architect, and Technical Architect. The Enterprise Solution Architect is the individual that oversees an entire enterprise in terms of business entities, properties, external ecosystems, relationships, and more.

Enterprise Architects focus on building robust solutions that solve a critical strategic issue. Usually, Enterprise Architects supervise and take a back seat role by delegating specific tasks to specialists in particular areas. The principal involvement of Enterprise Architects is ensuring the company, as an entity, has streamlined application lifecycles and uses the technologies best suited for each application. To put it simply, Technical Architects provide leadership and guidance to development teams.

Technical Architects are in charge of a specific engineering, software architecture or implementation technology.

Technical Architects play a technical leadership role to define standards and practices that should be followed throughout a solution project. Technical Architects work closely with technical development teams and executives to communicate information technology strategies, design overviews, applications, and more.

While it is a challenging role, it is also a role born out of an experience, which helps bear the burden of an entire solution deployment. Solution Architects are individuals who, without the shadow of a doubt, are up to the task of dealing with complex environments while delivering value. Their relevance is increasing in a world where solutions are the conjunction of technology, resources, skills, and business goals.

Companies benefit from employing a Solution Architect as projects become more complex and challenging. This is because Solution Architects, as we previously mentioned, carry a toolbelt of skills and expertise that help identify processes, risks, technologies, and business outcomes involved in delivering a top-notch solution. For the near future, the role of a Solution Architect will continue to evolve. It is not a static role and that is why it is still a work in progress.

With the proposal approved, the next step is to specify requirements and establish a more detailed architecture that will best solve the problems of stakeholders. In other words, at this stage, architects decide how exactly to build the solution. Above all, the architecture should allow for changes and growth. To sum up, the elaboration phase is the most significant stage for the architect when important choices influencing the effectiveness and success of the future product are made.

At the end of this phase, the architect provides design blueprints with major modules, their interactions, and the most critical low-level components inside them. The point of this stage is to ensure that the existing development team can actually build the solution using a particular tech stack, and this solution will be capable of handling tasks set by stakeholders.

If successful, the prototype proves that the architecture is stable, and the project is realistic and feasible. In other words, it makes sense from business and technical points of view to proceed with the next phase.

At the construction stage, software architects continue to work on designing less significant features and components. They also act as leaders, supervisors, and mentors. Basically, they promote their vision of a project, set quality standards to guarantee consistency across teams, provide code snippets to facilitate the development process, and review the code for compliance with predefined rules.

In case of alterations in requirements and, as a result, in the initial design, the software architect has to take care of changes and prevent their negative effect on expected characteristics — like speed, performance, ability to handle a particular workload, and security. Software architects participate in the selection of quality assurance QA tools and are accountable for continuous integration and deployment.

Based on the performance testing results, the architect can initiate changes in the infrastructure or project structure. To successfully perform their duties, software architects need to have a broad and deep technical expertise.

So, it comes as no surprise that most of them have grown from senior technical positions. At the same time, an ideal candidate for this role must have an ability to talk not only to machines but to human beings as well. Extensive technical background. Coding skills. They write code examples, proofs of concept, and prototypes serving as a basis for developers who further work with these snippets to get them to production.

Proved knowledge of cloud technologies. Option 2: Post completion of undergraduate Solution Architect course, aspirants may start working at an entry-level Solution Architect role.

After acquiring a Solution Architect work experience of several years, they may get themselves enrolled in a postgraduate Solution Architect course. Are you searching for Solution Architect skills? We have provided here details of Solution Architect skills. Aspirants are required to acquire these skill sets to acquire a full-time job role and remain efficient in the industry.

Communication Skills: A Solution Architect is required to possess strong communication skills. He or she must be able to communicate technical aspects, risk, challenges and selling points of the solution. He or she acts as a centerpiece for business analysts, project managers, vendors, developers and other parties involved in solution development. Risk Management: A career as a Solution Architect comes with the responsibility of identifying, evaluating and assessing risks and mitigating them.

He or she eliminates factors that cause hindrance in successful delivery of a solution. Technical Skills: The role of Solution Architect involves providing guidance, identifying risks and assessing the technology infrastructure of a solution. He or she deals with numerous technical disciplines.

Eye to Detail: A Solution Architect must be detail oriented. He or she must be able to constantly evaluate every aspect of the solution no matter how minor it seems.

A Solution Architect must be able to acknowledge valuable components and discard what seems insignificant. We have provided here a list of Solution Architect certification courses. Aspiring individuals may get themselves enrolled in these courses to upgrade their skills and knowledge to remain efficient in the country.

Aspirants who want to establish a career as a Solution Architect are required to first opt for internships. Candidates must fulfil the requirements to apply for Solution Architect internships. They must be either enrolled or graduated in computer science or a relevant discipline. One can find plenty of Solution Architect internship opportunities through recruitment websites such as Indeed, LinkedIn, Monster, Naukri.

Shooting cold emails may also help in acquiring the right opportunity. A Solution Architect intern is assigned with several work responsibilities. His or her work responsibilities include providing a higher level of architecture and contributing to development of innovative solutions.

A Solution Architect intern may be required to document the functional requirements. He or she may be required to create user flows and capability maps in order to describe applications being prototyped. You might have been trying to figure out how to progress in the Solution Architect career.

Aspirants are required to possess relevant qualifications and prior work experience in network systems administration, database management systems or business intelligence tools.

One has to give a start to his or her career with an entry-level role. Gradually, with experience in the industry candidates may acquire senior-level Solution Architect positions with addition of responsibilities. Junior Solution Architect: A Junior Solution Architect work responsibilities include leading translation of business objectives.

He or she is required to bring functional solutions. A Junior Architect prepares and documents testing requirements and test data. Senior Solution Architect: A Senior Solution Architect is responsible for creating, designing and implementing arrangements within a business.

He or she provides support in building new systems required by the company to identify the current business problems and future technological goals. The role of Junior Solution Architect involves leading brainstorming sessions as well as identifying areas for process improvements.

He or she designs and develops technical solutions utilising existing technologies. The size and structure of the employing organisation also affects the salary. The average Junior Solution Architect salary is Rs. The role of Senior Solution Architect comes with the responsibility of implementing new plans and goals. He or she is employed in business development, management, business planning and quality assurance.

He or she prioritises goals and objectives and monitors the work of others. The salary of a Senior Solution Architect varies depending on various factors such as his or her skills, experience, size and structure of the employing organisation. The average Senior Solution Architect salary is Rs.

There is a steady job demand in the IT sector as firms are continuing to expand their digital capabilities. Solutions Architect jobs are expected to increase at a rate of 30 per cent in the upcoming years. Numerous Solution Architects take time off in order to create contracting or consulting companies.

Employers prefer to hire Candidates with prior work experience. Several companies may provide job training. Several companies pay for the higher education of their employees.

The minimum required qualification to become a Solution Architect is successful completion of any undergraduate course in computer science or any other relevant discipline. IIT Kharagpur. IIT Madras. IIT Mandi.