Architectural Roles
The Architecture team is
divided into a number of roles based on an orthogonal “separation of concerns”:
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Chief Architect
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Applications Architect
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Data Architect
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Information Architect
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Internet Architect
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Network Architect
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Systems Architect
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Security Architect
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Process Architect
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Project Architects (PA)
All but the last role comprise
the Enterprise Architects. Each role (with the exception of the PA) is focused
on issues at the enterprise level and across all projects. Due to the shortage
of resources many architects hold more than one of the positions described
below. In some cases there already exists a central department within the
company that has an enterprise focus on one of these roles. In this case the Enterprise
Architect may reside in this team and be matrixed into the Architecture team.
By this means all architectural work is coordinated across all dimensions and
projects.
Primary Responsibilities of Each Architect
Chief Architect
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Coordinates and facilitates the activity of the Enterprise
Architects and Project Architects with existing projects; removing road-blocks
where necessary.
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Takes proactive escalation of probable system problems or design
flaws to upper management before serious impact on ROI.
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Assures the complementary synthesis of all standards, models,
designs and methodologies recommended by the Enterprise Architects.
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Acts as evangelist of the work and recommendations of the
architecture team.
Applications Architect
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Selects the paradigm and technology for application
program-to-program communication (APPC) among the components.
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Determines the overall priority ranking of each of the possible system
qualities (cost, reusability, robustness, etc.) so the other architects can
design models that enforce the “balance of concerns”.
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Responsible for defining the application tiers, frameworks,
components types and interfaces. Also, creates the first-draft graphical template
of UML design models used by the Project Architects.
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Specifies and provides ownership of reusable application
components or reusable application code.
Data Architect
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Sets Data Policy and the technical solution for the management,
storage, access, navigation, movement, and transformation of data.
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Specifies recommended DBMS and ETL tools and technologies for
structured and unstructured content.
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Creates and maintains the Metadata Repository.
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Creates a semantically rich business model of the enterprise problem
domain that:
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Is independent of any technology solution
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Defines the Content of the business
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Compiles and maintains the Enterprise Schema across all
applications.
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Enforces principles of good canonical data design.
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Examines and enforces opportunities to provide data reuse,
balancing the issues of centralization and replication.
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Ensures the preservation of strategic data assets as applications
and technologies de jure come and go.
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Reviews the policies and work of the Data Base Administrators.
Information Architect
Because there already exists a
central Web Hosting team the Information Architect may reside in this team and
be matrixed into the Architecture team.
Richard Saul
Wurman, the father of information architecture, describes the role in these
words: “The individual who organizes the patterns inherent in data,
making the complex clear.” “A person who creates the structure or map of
information which allows others to find their personal paths to
knowledge.” “The emerging 21st century professional occupation addressing the
needs of the age focused upon clarity, human understanding, and the science of
the organization of information”
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Defines the visual roadmap seen by the customers of the company
with emphasis on making it easy for customers to find the needed data to make
appropriate decisions regarding their medical care and management.
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Establishes branding policy and holds the UI templates.
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Establishes the personalization policy with a goal to building
customer loyalty and relationship enrichment.
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Defines the recommended dialog flow for long-running transactions
and “speech acts” in coordination with the Business Process Group.
Internet Architect
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Monitors the emerging standards for B2B & B2C internet
interaction and sets the standards and technologies to be used by the
enterprise. These include the existing HTML, applet & XML standards, and
the emerging web services and semantic net standards.
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Coordinates with the other architects on issues dealing with the
quality flaws of the existing standards, especially security, session state and
long-running transactions.
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Builds a composite reference model to be used on internet-based
applications, incorporating the models provided by the system architect,
network architect, security architect, and applications architect.
Network Architect
Because there already exists a central Network team the
Network Architect may reside in this team and be matrixed into the Architecture
team.
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Focuses on the lower-level transport protocols and the standards
and technologies for enabling systems qualities via network command-and-control
structures.
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Evaluates and selects the enterprise’s networking hardware.
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Manages the network topology.
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Establishes network operation center (NOC) command-and-control
structures for auto-discovery, event monitoring, trouble ticketing.
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Facilitates the upgrade to the Web-Based Enterprise Management (WBEM)
standard of the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) and select the
appropriate Common Information Model Object Manager (CIMOM) for tracking the
state of the enterprises assets.
System Architect
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Focuses on the standards and technologies for enabling systems
performance qualities, such as availability, scalability, recoverability, etc.
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Evaluates and selects the enterprise’s server hardware, operating
system, job control.
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Supports the Applications architect in selecting the application
framework.
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Balances the quality issues cost vs. robustness, and hardware
architecture, such as share-nothing n-tier vs. share-all symmetric
multi-processing (SMP).
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Monitors performance benchmarks provided by the Transaction
Processing Council (TPC).
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In conjunction with the Project Architect (PA) sizes the
application and selects the hardware and configuration to use.
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Participates in the drafting of Service Level Agreements (SLA).
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Establishes a process to monitor existing systems for performance
problems and drafts system migration plan if necessary.
Security Architect
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Monitors security guidelines, such as HIPAA.
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Establishes and enforces the Security Policy and Trust Model for
Administrators to follow in delegating and granting application privileges.
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Establishes and enforces the Security Model, technologies and
standards for system architects and designers.
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Tracks warnings of new types of security threats and assures that
the systems in place guard against these threats.
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Establishes the systems for discovering, tracking and convicting
abusers of security and system integrity.
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Performs periodic security audits on existing systems.
Process/Methodology Architect
While the other architects are focused on what the
system should contain, the process architect is focused on how the application
should be designed and built.
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Reviews and selects the Design Methodology and Modeling
Language. Methodologies may be based on the Zachman, Rational Unified Process
(RUP), Catalysis, RM-ODP, Iconix, SAADAM, etc. The modeling language should
incorporate the Business Process Model (BPML) and the Unified Modeling Language
(UML).
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Reviews and selects the Process Management Methodology. It is
recommended that the new iterative methodologies from the Agile Alliance be
reviewed for adoption, esp. Feature-Drive Development (FDD).
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Defines roles & responsibilities and creates a template
Project Plan for modification by Project Managers.
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Selects CASE & IDE tool & Design Repository.
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Communicates the above to the development teams, and is enforced
by the Project Architects (PA).
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Manages the education of the PAs.
Project Architects (PA)
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Responsible for translating application requirements and business
process models (BPM) into component and interface specifications.
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Ensures that the Technology Partners and development teams adhere
to the principles established by the Enterprise Architects.
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Designs first-draft graphical UML & ER models that are
delivered to the software development & DBA teams.
The activities of the Project Architect
(PA) can be contrasted with the Project Manager (PM) as shown in the following
table:
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Topic
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Project Manager
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Project Architect
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Software Development
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Organize project; manage resources, budgets, schedules
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Organizes team or technology partner around design;
manages dependencies
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Requirements
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Negotiate with marketing; emphasis on business process and
user interface
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Review requirements; emphasis on functionality and system
qualities
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Personnel issues
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Handle hiring; performance appraisals, salary; motivate
employees
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Interview candidates; provide input on technical
capabilities of staff; motivate development team
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Technology
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Introduce new technologies per architect’s recommendations
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Recommend technology, standards, training, tools
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Quality
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Ensure quality of product
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Ensure quality of design and operational control
characteristics
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Metrics
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Measure productivity, size, quality
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Ensure design goals are met, volumetrics do not exceed
scale
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Hope this is helpful. Do come back for more details.
