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Software Architect is a general term that may refer to a broad range of roles. There is no single accepted definition. Some short definitions are somewhat humorous: Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

• The person who worries about the important stuff ^[1]
• Architecture is the decisions that you wish you could get right early in a project^[2]
• What is Architecture? It is what Architects do.^[3]

History

With the increased popularity of multi tier application development, the choices how an application could be built are increased. Developers find themselves "reinventing the wheel" many times in the same organization. In software engineering, multi-tier architecture (often referred to as n-tier architecture) is a client-server architecture, originally designed by Jonathon Bolster of Hematites Corp, in which an application is executed by more than one distinct software agent. ...

A new Software Architect role became a need during Software Development. A software systems architect or software architect is responsible for: Interfacing with the user(s) and sponsor(s) and all other stakeholders in order to determine their (evolving) needs to be realized in software. ... “Software development” redirects here. ...

The main responsibilities of this new role are:

• Limit the choices during development 

  can be achieved by :

• choosing a standard way of doing application development
• defining/creating an Application framework to use for the application

• Spot potential reuse in the organization or in the application 

  can be achieved by :

• Seeing the big picture
• Doing the component design
• Have contact and knowledge of other applications in the organization

This happened at the time when the Object Oriented Programming(OOP) was getting wide spread use (late 1990s and early 2000). With the help of Object Oriented Programming, bigger and bigger and more and more complex applications were being built. There became a need to over see from a high level, these complex applications. Software Architects were given a this new responsibility, that includes: “Software development” redirects here. ... In computer programming, an application framework is a term usually used to refer to a set of libraries or classes that are used to implement the standard structure of an application for a specific operating system. ... An organisation (or organization — see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged with Software componentry. ... An organisation (or organization — see spelling differences) is a social arrangement which pursues collective goals, which controls its own performance, and which has a boundary separating it from its environment. ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a computer programming paradigm in which a software system is modeled as a set of objects that interact with each other. ... Year 1990 (MCMXC) was a common year starting on Monday (link displays the 1990 Gregorian calendar). ... Year 2000 (MM) was a leap year starting on Saturday (link will display full 2000 Gregorian calendar). ... Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a computer programming paradigm in which a software system is modeled as a set of objects that interact with each other. ... A software systems architect or software architect is responsible for: Interfacing with the user(s) and sponsor(s) and all other stakeholders in order to determine their (evolving) needs to be realized in software. ...

• During design, break down the complex application to smaller manageable pieces

• Understand the functions of each component

• Understand the interactions and dependencies between component

• Communicate the aboves to developers

So it is assumed that a Software Architect has knowledge about OOP and Unified Modeling Language (UML). UML is a modeling language that became important for Software Architects to communicate their design to developers and other team members, it is like drawings for Building Architects. In the field of software engineering, the Unified Modeling Language (UML) is a standardized specification language for object modeling. ... For other uses, see Architect (disambiguation). ...

What the Software Architect does

Even given the lack of simple definition, there are some aspects to the role that are shared by all Architects:

Strategic Thinking

Architects are focused on solving business needs in a strategic manner. For example, decisions are evaluated against how they will allow the enterprise, or a single software system to grow and perform in the long term. Great care is taken to create and spot opportunities for re-use.

Because of the strategic bias, decisions that an Architect will make will often differ from those that a developer or a project manager will make. In many ways, the Architect acts as the business owner would if they were technically savvy^[4]. While a developer is working and focused on to develop a software component, not necessarily seeing how the components would work together. Software Architect sees the big picture and defines the interaction between components.

System Interactions

Architects deal with boundaries, interfaces and interactions. These may be between two systems written in different languages at different locations, or between two components of the same software system, written in the same coding language.

Service-oriented architecture is a recent evolution that has the potential to simplify architects jobs. This is primarily because it provides a way of thinking about architecture that is closely aligned with the architect's need to define the APIs of systems. Service-oriented Architecture (SOA) is an evolution of distributed computing and modular programming. ... API may refer to: In computing, application programming interface In petroleum industry, American Petroleum Institute In education, Academic Performance Index This page concerning a three-letter acronym or abbreviation is a disambiguation page — a navigational aid which lists other pages that might otherwise share the same title. ...

Design

The architect makes many high level (and sometimes low level) design choices.

In addition, the architect may dictate various standards, including coding standards, tools, platforms. The reason for doing so is to facilitate strategic goals, rather than to arbitrarily restrict the choices of developers.

Communication

The final aspect is that they have to communicate; firstly in order to understand the business needs, and then in order to communicate their own architectural vision.

In addition to verbal communication, there are various Software Architectural Models that specialize in communicating architecture. An Architectural Model (in Software) is a rich and rigorous diagram, creating using available standards, in which the primary concern is to illustrate a specific set of tradeoffs inherent in the structure and design of a system or ecosystem. ...

Types of Software Architects

The Enterprise Architect deals with strategic software decisions (aligning IT with the business), typically involving many software systems within an organization, across several projects teams, typically at more than one site. The Enterprise Architect may seldom see or interact with source code. The Enterprise Architect is one who is responsible for design and management of the the end-to end Technology components (both macro and micro) and provides governance to ensure that they remain aligned to the business objectives. ... The Enterprise Architect is one who is responsible for design and management of the the end-to end Technology components (both macro and micro) and provides governance to ensure that they remain aligned to the business objectives. ...

An Application Architect is concerned with a single software application. This may be a full or part-time role. The Application Architect is almost always an active software developer.

Other architect titles that are in use, but without consensus on the exact meaning:

• Solution Architect - may refer to the focus on driving a particular business solution, which needs interactions between multiple applications. May also refer to an Application Architect.
• System Architect (singular) - used as a synonym to Application Architect.
• Systems Architect (plural) - used as a synonym to Enterprise Architect or Solution Architect.

The simple table below can further assist in understanding the differences between Software architects: The systems architect is responsible for: Interfacing with the user(s) and sponsor(s) and all other stakeholders in order to determine their (evolving) needs. ... The Enterprise Architect is one who is responsible for design and management of the the end-to end Technology components (both macro and micro) and provides governance to ensure that they remain aligned to the business objectives. ...

In the software industry, there is a fair amount of conflict^[5] between Application and Solution Architects, and Enterprise Architects. Looking at the table above, it is not hard to see why. For example, Application and Enterprise architects are almost completely opposite in terms of focus! The Enterprise Architect is one who is responsible for design and management of the the end-to end Technology components (both macro and micro) and provides governance to ensure that they remain aligned to the business objectives. ... The Enterprise Architect is one who is responsible for design and management of the the end-to end Technology components (both macro and micro) and provides governance to ensure that they remain aligned to the business objectives. ...

Architect Metaphor

The term "Architect" came into being because the creation of software was likened to the construction of buildings^[6]. It is clear that the role is necessary, and the closest equivalent in the building industry is the Architect.

It is generally agreed that a simplified construction metaphor is flawed^[7] with regard to software development. Nevertheless, the term is still meaningful in the sense that it describes the "design" aspect of the job.

Ivory Towers

When Architects become too divorced from the teams that are actually doing development, they are often termed as "Ivory Tower Architects". The picture in people's minds is that of the Architect creating the architecture definition, and then handing it off to the development team(s).

Partly, this is the fault of the flawed construction metaphor (architect handing blueprints off to builder). Also, many "Waterfall" development methodologies of the past encouraged this style of working.

Controversy

At the level of detail that an Application or Solutions Architect works, it is necessary to get involved in the actual coding. A software-development background is a requirement for the job. Some people extend this requirement to Enterprise Architects too. The fear is that an Enterprise Architect without the necessary development background will tend towards the "Ivory Tower" way of doing things.

References

Ralph E. Johnson is co-author of the influential Computer science textbook, Design Patterns. ... Kent Beck is the creator of Extreme Programming and is one of the founders of the Agile Manifesto. ...

See also

• Systems architecture / Systems architect
• Software Architectural Model
• Software architecture
• Hardware architecture / Hardware architect
• Systems engineering / Systems engineer
• Software engineering / Software engineer
• Requirements analysis / Requirements engineer
• Systems design
• Electrical engineering
• Electronics engineering