You are probably confused as to what an architect does and thats not surprising ! The role of the architect has evolved in many different directions and organisations deliver architecture in many different ways.
However, fundamentally they are all working to achieve the same goals.
- Ensure technical designs meet the user and business needs, delivering clear outcomes
- Ensure technical delivery is of high quality and value for money
This is often achieved by:
- Working closely with the business or service area to understand goals
- Working closely with developers, advising, mentoring and developing skills
- Setting technical design standards and guidelines for ways of working
- Sharing knowledge through communities of practice
- Communicating clearly at different levels and audiences
- Looking left and right across the technical landscape minimising divergence and increasing convergence
- Governance
Architecture is part of a value chain, issues early in the chain manifest later as other issues.
Architecture issue -> Coding issue -> Application issue -> Business issue
- Architecture tells a story and architects are story tellers.
Next - Why do we need architecture?