What a good solution architect should be

A solution architect should have strong technical knowledge, a wide outlook, and experience in leading a team or project. A good SA should have a knowledge of the business structure and its internal processes in order to offer the best solution to optimize them or implement a new one in the existing infrastructure.

In this block, we have gathered the most important skills the specialist needs to have:

Management skills

While most of these responsibilities require a leadership role from a solution architect, this person just supports PM activities to ensure that resources, risk recognition, and planning stay aligned with the solution goals.

Deep analytical skills

For a solutions architect, strategic and analytical thinking are just as important as technical and soft skills. The SA must be able to recognise and understand corporate strategy and existing business processes to have a better picture of the company regarding its business outcomes.

Risk identification and management

A solution architect should know how to evaluate potential short-term and long-term risks that may lead to technical issues and impede future business operations and how to manage them in the product development process.

Communication skills

Communication and collaboration are essential for any project success and excellent communication skills are a must for solutions architects, as they are the link between a client and project team. The solutions architect must be capable of communicating clearly the technical aspects, risks, challenges, and benefits of a solution as well as working with a development team to ensure the solution is designed to meet business needs.

Technical Skills

For solution architects, the business side of the product matters as much as the technical side. They should have a minimum of a bachelor's degree in information technology, computer science, software engineering, or a related field, as well as practical experience of at least several years in software development process and hardware engineering. Coding experience may help them better understand the development team’s needs.

As a solutions architect, a specialist should be certified in any relevant skill or technology for your industry or field. They may have such certifications:

• AWS certified solution architect
• Microsoft certified solutions expert
• Certified Information Systems Security Professional - Architecture (CISSP)
• Google professional cloud architect

According to PayScale data, the most popular technical skills which effect on salary are:

• SAP Business Warehouse (SAP BW)
• Database Administration
• Apache Kafka
• ServiceNow
• Informatica
• Software Development LifeCycle (SDLC)
• Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
• IT Security & Infrastructure
• Mobile applications development
• Data Management

Being a CTO at Twelvedevs, I oversee all aspects of future systems design. Our rich development experience and deep understanding of the inner structure of businesses allows us to speak the same language with clients, providing the most suitable solutions.

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