Solution Architecture

This paper states an approach for the operationalization of a solution architecture model, as an integral part of the development process and the applications maintenance. The proposed approach has been put into practice in a Company from the financial sector. The process of construction and implementation process of technological solution in an Enterprise takes multiple practices and management models, and it brings into play different roles and actors during its execution, from the business and technological perspective. Recently, the concept of solution architecture, has emerged as a better practice (little explored and documented) and it is being used in the execution of initiatives related with the development of technology solutions cycle, also it interacts collaboratively with other better management practices as software and enterprise architecture.

If IT projects are to be successful, they must meet business requirements, and they must be efficiently managed. IT projects need methodological skills to manage resources as well as technical capabilities for architectural planning and solution design. Project managers and solution architects represent two highly-qualified leadership roles in IT projects, both of which analyze requirements and both of which are responsible for supplying IT solutions. In predictive IT infrastructure projects, solution architects’ technology skills complement project managers’ organizational competencies. The combination of those skills improves requirements elicitation that is the key for IT project achievement. Project managers and solution architects closely collect and evaluate requirements and specify the scope in the planning phase. The relationship between these roles is examined by the IT management literature and established practitioner frameworks. Finally, suggestions for collaboration are derived and presented in the IT solution life cycle model.

0131412752 - Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture, A - In A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture, six leading experts present indispensable technical, process, and business insight into every aspect of enterprise architecture. You'll find start-to-finish guidance for architecting ...

Enterprise Architecture (EA) plays a dominant role in today's organizations by providing a holistic view of business, information, systems, and technology. Unfortunately, designing an EA is a very challenging and sophisticated task such that 40% of EA projects usually fail mainly due to either an inconsistent evaluation process or ignoring the planning aspect of evaluation. In this paper, we present a complete survey of various published papers on recent advancements in EA evaluation techniques and discuss the Pros and Cons of each of which. We finally present a set of novel evaluation criteria as well as a Cross-layer Evaluation (CLE) approach, which can consider all the EA layers from the strategy and business architecture to technology architecture. The proposed approach offers tremendous insights into EA and can be easily incorporated into every enterprise with a moderate cost.