Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
The Business Architect
Organizations that employ complex application solutions or ones with
public-facing business applications such as Web shopping carts or business
intelligence portals may find it necessary to assign a business architectural
role. Whether combined with the chief architect's position or implemented
separately, the person holding this operational role must understand and
translate all business strategies and processes into requirements that can
be addressed through technology selection or development.
The business architect's role may include technology planning for
business-to-business, business-to-consumer, partner integration, service-
oriented-architecture selection, and management of heterogeneous or leg-
acy application suites that require data gateway translation or information
transfer for operation.
The Technology Architect
The technology architect role becomes necessary in organizations that
employ a wide range of technological solutions, or in which application
development or customization is used extensively. This role requires deep
technical experience, often in one or more programming disciplines, and
the technology architect acts to ensure that application development and
modification are performed within the strategies detailed from the chief
architect's vision.
The technology architect is responsible for guiding application design
style selection, such as service-oriented, scrum, or waterfall-type develop-
ment, as well as testing new techniques and technologies for potential use
within the extended enterprise. Though often considered the most fun
job, this role of the technology architect is not just to try out all of the new
technology toys, but to be able to draw a hard line when a solution reaches
end of life or is determined to fall outside the organization's needs.
Outsourced Architecture
Some aspects of enterprise architecture can be outsourced to external
expertise. In general, this is done in order to gain access to skills that are
not present or not present in sufficient depth within the existing human
resources of the organization. When making a strategic change in storage
