Project governance almost systematically requires a steering committee. In a constantly evolving technological context, companies are obliged to keep their information systems up to date to remain competitive. This digital transformation requires specific skills and practices to keep the company at the cutting edge of technology. In this context, a solution architect is the person who will ensure the performance of the company’s services. Its role is decisive, from the design phase to the implementation of a software solution.

What is a solution architect?

The job of solution architect consists of creating, presenting and implementing technical solutions adapted to the company’s problems. He is mainly involved in IS architecture. He is required to propose complex solutions and to advise the client in the digital transformation. It must also support the company through an analysis of its strategy and business challenges. The objective is to study the technical feasibility of the project before proposing software solutions.

Its intervention is largely based on an understanding of the client’s needs, business sector, trades and internal processes. He or she must have a strong understanding of and interest in new technologies to ensure that the proposed software solution is as appropriate and effective as possible.

The missions of the solution architect

The first step is to analyze the environment of the project and the issues it raises.
He must then propose a global solution which takes into account business and application architecture. This solution must be adapted to the company. It must therefore take into account its IT system, its information environment and its requirements.

The solution architect must ensure that the proposed system meets the client’s expectations. In general, he/she manages the entire project and evaluates the production load in close collaboration with the development teams. In concrete terms, it designs the operating procedures for the solution found, prepares the commissioning phase and keeps a close eye on technology watch of the customer’s business sector.

However, his mission often comes up against constraints that he must integrate into his work. There are many: execution constraints, cost and time constraints or technical constraints. For example, when a technical solution requires specific tools and implementation, costs can be increased. In this kind of situation, the architect must succeed in optimizing the budget allocated to the project, taking into account technological and deadline constraints.

He/she may also encounter managerial constraints since he/she leads the team of development engineers. In addition to drawing up the development and integration plan, the solution architect must also coordinate the activities of the various parties involved, mobilize talent, motivate staff by involving them in the project, and give meaning to the objectives to be achieved.

In summary, the solution architect has a transversal function and must therefore assume different roles to carry out his mission. This consists of piloting the deployment of the new information system architecture while ensuring the consistency and stability of this new system through technological monitoring and regular testing.

The success of the project depends on the skills of the solution architect

From the preparatory phase to the deployment of the new information system, the solution architect needs to have a complete and general vision of the client’s technological organization. This allows him to define the technical needs and the difficulties to be solved or to integrate solutions in his costing. To be able to carry out precise work adapted to the client’s requirements, he must have excellent technical and relational skills.

The following skills and abilities are required:

• Develop a technical solution adapted to the customer: ensure the reliability of the solutions implemented, propose innovative solutions, etc.
• Perfect command of operating and database management systems, etc.
• Be a good communicator: know how to present technical solutions clearly, explain technical terms in layman’s terms, adapt your communication to different audiences, etc.
• Networking: getting people from different professions to work together, cooperating with different profiles, federating all parties involved in the project, creating a group dynamic to achieve objectives more quickly, etc.

The architect is more and more solicited in companies experiencing takeovers or mergers, because they must absolutely pool their information systems. He is then called upon to create a technological environment that will suit companies.

Moreover, this profession offers prospects for development in a complex and often innovative environment. The architect works within a company to modernize the information system, increase the efficiency of business processes and automate all recurring or non-productive tasks.

To succeed in these missions, he/she works in close collaboration with the network and system manager. Often, it deals with other departments in the company to better evaluate the impacts of the deployment of a new software solution. Thus, to call upon a good solution architect is to ensure the deployment of an efficient and durable information system!

Also read in our "IT project governance" file:

• Lowcode platform: the future of application development?
• The use of UIPATH as an RPA solution
• Project comitology: the governance bodies of an IT project and their roles
• Steering and governance of a Finance IS project: which profiles should be involved?
• Steering and governance of an IT project: which profiles should be involved?
• Project governance: what role for the steering committee?
• The actors of a project team: organization, role and skills
• The IS manager at the heart of the development and evolution of systems
• HRIS Manager: what role in the evolution of HR Information Systems?
• IS project manager: what role and responsibility in an IS project?
• Functional consultant: a role close to the business processes
• Technical consultant: a profession at the heart of technological development
• Solution architect: a profession that manages development and deployment
• DevOps Consultant: role, missions and development skills
• Data Protection Officer (DPO): what roles and missions?
• CISO: a key job within the business for system security
• The service delivery manager at the heart of team management
• Scrum master, a key profession for Scrum project management
• Data scientist: a strategic profession at the service of management
• MOA / MOE: how are the roles divided on a project of implementation of an information system?