Roles and Responsibilities: Solution Architect
In the intricate tapestry of Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe), where agility meets scalability, one role stands out as the linchpin in the creation of harmonious and effective solutions — enter the Solution Architect. In this blog, we will delve into the roles and responsibilities of Solution Architect in detail. But before we start, let’s take a brief overlook on who exactly is a Solution Architect.
Who is a Solution Architect?
The Solution Architect is responsible for defining and communicating a shared technical and architectural vision for a Solution Train to help ensure the solution under development will be fit for its intended purpose.
Solution Architects play a critical role in the Enterprise Solution Delivery (ESD) core competency by aligning the many solution builders across multiple Agile Release Trains (ARTs) and Suppliers to a shared technical direction. To do this, they collaborate with various Solution Train roles and Agile Teams to elaborate the solution, validate technology assumptions, evaluate implementation alternatives, and converge on the final solution.
Roles and Responsibilities of Solution Architect
The Solution Architect’s responsibilities can be categorized into the following five areas as shown in the figure below, followed by a detail look into each of these areas.
First Responsibility: Implementing Lean Systems Engineering
The architect has a crucial role in evolving the way of building large cyber-physical systems that usually involve a highly diverse technology stack and multiple ARTs and suppliers. The practices for implementing Lean Systems Engineering are as follows:
- Specify the solution incrementally
- Apply multiple planning horizons
- Design for change
- Frequently integrate the end-to-end solution
- Continually address compliance concerns
- Use Solution Trains to build large solutions
- Manage the supply chain
- Build an end-to-end Continuous Delivery Pipeline
- Evolve deployed systems
- Actively manage artificial intelligence/machine learning systems
The SA plays a crucial role in ensuring these practices are implemented, largely building the first responsibility.
Second Responsibility: Establishing Solution Intent and Context
1. Identify and respond to technology-enabled business opportunities
Simply designing technology solutions that meet predefined business requirements might not gurantee success. Thus, solution definition should be happening at the intersection of technological capability and business opportunity. That is where the SA plays a crucial role of ideating practical and technical possibilities that represent value to the business.
2. Participate in solution definition
The SA is usually very involved in the solution definition as captured in Solution Intent. The reason behind this is due to the fact that defining solution capabilities requires understanding of the underlying architecture and technological strategies for implementation.
3. Evaluate technology tradeoffs
The SA’s are crucial in assessing various possible technology alternatives and implementation approaches. In close collaboration with Solution Management, they make strategic technology decisions, seeking a productive balance between the implementation cost and business value. Experimentation often informs such decisions.
4. Formulate architectural intent for the solution
SA’s are responsible for defining the architectural concept of the solution. This includes critical technologies and their use, the structure of the solution in terms of its subsystems, and so on. This is one of the core aspects of their role.
5. Define compliance requirements and solution NFRs
It’s the SA’s duty to define the Non-functional requirements (NFRs) for the solution based on the business need and the necessary technology tradeoffs.
6. Understand and communicate Solution Context
The Solution Architect communicates the solution context to the Solution Train and works with ARTs, suppliers, and shared services to design and implement a viable solution.
Third Responsibility: Defining and Communicating Architecture Vision
1. Prepare and update the architectural vision and roadmap
The SA’s should regularly update the vision and strategy for solution architecture, to inform the direction of the Solution Train during PI. They should also continually update the roadmap with architectural capabilities to guide the progression of the Solution Train.
2. Define architectural enablers and runway
SA’s should define the Architectural runway consisting of enabler capabilities. This helps in supporting the business priorities of the Solution Train.
3. Participate in Pre- and PI Planning
In Pre-Planning and PI Planning events, the Solution Architect communicates the architecture vision and works with System Architects and Suppliers to transform the high-level architecture intent into a realistic, actionable set of steps factored into the Solution Train’s PI plan.
4. Ensure capacity allocation for enablement work
The Solution Architect works with the Solution Management to define a productive capacity allocated for business capabilities vs. capacity for technology enablement.
Fourth Responsibility: Evolving Solution Architecture with ARTs and Suppliers
1. Support exploration and experimentation
There are numerous unknowns that should be resolved to enable the intended business capabilities. The SA’s should participate in the most critical explorations and experiments aiming to address such unknowns.
2. Apply modeling and simulation
Modeling and simulation are guided by the SA’s and implemented by the ARTs and suppliers. This is done to approximate the critical aspects of the solution design. SA’s apply Model-based Systems Engineering and simulation to progressively uncover and address the intricacies of near-term architectural advancements.
3. Regularly review solution increments
The SA’s regularly participates in the System and Solution demos to ensure architectural enablers achieve their purpose. SAFe recommends that a fully (or at least partially) integrated solution increment is produced multiple times in the PI.
4. Collaborate with ARTs and suppliers on solution design
Architectural intent needs to be balanced against the reality of implementation to build a viable solution. SA’s regularly interact with system architects and technology leads from ARTs and supplier to collaborate on solution design and familiarize ARTs and suppliers with an end-to-end view of the solution.
5. Participate in establishing Solution Train flow
The Solution Architect participates in establishing Solution Train Flow via the value stream mapping process and helps the Solution Train define improvements to the value delivery process. In this process, the architect often utilizes the ‘Inverse Conway Maneuver’ by helping teams apply Team Topologies.
Fifth Responsibility: Fostering Built-in Quality and the Continuous Delivery Pipeline
1. Foster solution design that supports frequent integration and testability
Architectural choices influence how easy or hard it is to leverage Built-in Quality practices. Assisted by System Architects and Suppliers, SA’s help navigate the tradeoffs that enable frequent integration and testability of solution assets.
2. Participate in the design of the CDP
The architect supports the creation and evolution of the Continuous Delivery Pipeline. They typically provide guidance regarding technologies and tools to power the CDP. In addition, the Solution Architect directs solution design towards improved deployability by reducing and mitigating coupling across solution components and improving interfaces with other systems.
3. Define and evolve development and deployment infrastructure
To ensure built-in quality practices are applied effectively and enable the CDP, the SA’s helps understand and define the infrastructure required to develop and deliver customer value.
4. Participate in release governance
Based on their deep understanding of solution architecture and technology impact, the Solution Architect provides essential guidance regarding release governance. Their effort often involves determining the technology impact of specific releases and infrastructure implications.
Sixth Responsibility: Evolving Live Solutions
1. Evolve architecture to support new business priorities
SA’s must continuously update and refine the architectural runway. This ensures that the architectural work does not stop after the initial version of the solution has been developed and released.
2. Advance and support NFRs
Once a solution goes live, it matures and undergoes various usage milestones. That also results in change of landscape of applicable NFRs. To support the evolving uses of the system, the SA’s should define and communicate changes to existing NFRs and define new NFRs.
3. Ensure continuous compliance
The Solution Architect ensures that the new releases of the live solution adhere to regulatory requirements. This work may involve incorporating new compliance regulations.
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