Pragmatic Software Architecture and the Role of the Architect

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Hi,

Can anyone explains to me the difference between the three ? I have read some debate about enterprise and technical architect, and now the presentation mention software architect ?

Presentation slides are not downloadable.

+1 Special thanks for mentioning a need to provide a legend for diagrams - one of my biggest pet peeves. I also want to stress that providing diagrams in UML doesn't relieve you from the responsibility of providing a legend, especially explaining all the arrows. UML tools may enforce the standard notation as far as individual elements are concerned, but everyone is still free to arrange those elements in a surprising way, and even assign a different meaning to the elements.

-1 In the beginning the speaker said that he wants us to have a take away that nobody can agree on the roles of an architect. It may be true, but as far as a take away from an hour long presentation - it's pretty weak. In this way, the talk is only adding to a confusion, not helping it.

In many small to medium size organizations Software, Technical and Solution architects are essentially synonymous.

Medium size organizations often equate Enterprise and Solution architects.

In medium to large organizations Enterprise and Business architects may be the same.

In large organizations Enterprise architect is often a chief architect with other architects reporting to him or her.

IASA is trying to standardize those roles but it's still a long way from a broad acceptance. Currently there is still too much variation between different companies.

Hi,

Can anyone explains to me the difference between the three ?

Even at this point in history, definitions are not hard and well-defined, but more or less will follow the following interpretation. I'm sure others will agree and others will disagree, so take it with a grain of salt in the hope that it helps you do your appropriate research and come with similar or better interpretations and definitions.

Software architecture deals with the architecture, the fundamental structures and constrains within an existing software-intensive system (or the structures and constrains that guide the building of one.) Within this concept, some architectures are more common or widely applicable - as a solution - to a class of problems in a particular domain. For example, JEE. Applications that fall within JEE architecture possess what is typically called application-specific software architecture, or application architecture.

Technical architecture deals with infrastructure, typically, but not always, network architecture, hardware selection/acquisition, and the processes by that govern the life cycle of these elements (investigation/selection, deployment, testing, maintenance and decommissioning/replacement.) This domain works closely with IT Operations/Operations Architecture which can be seen (not quite correctly, though) as a liason or in-between domain between Software/Application Architecture and Technical Architecture.

Enterprise architecture deals with how an enterprise is made, organized, structured. It deals with the business units that drive the enterprise (and which justify/enables its existence), the business processes that makes it profitable, and the technology (hardware and software) that enables these processes to operate. It also deals with how business processes drive the adoption or abandonment of a given type of technology as well as (in the other direction) how technology can be used to improve or even change business processes.

Technical and Software architecture are subdomains of enterprise architecture. In large/critical systems (say within the DoE, DoD or in commercial sectors dealing with the implementation of large/critical equipment), you also deal with hardware (electrical, mechanical, etc) architecture and systems architecture.

The later (systems architecture) is the architectural science of bringing architectures and designs from multiple disciplines (software, electrical, mechanical, aerospace, nuclear, chemical, etc) into a solution within an enterprise domain (with enterprise being either commercial or public/Defense/DoE/etc.)

Hope that clears it up.

Enterprise architecture deals with

I have read some debate about enterprise and technical architect, and now the presentation mention software architect ?

It shouldn't surprise you much to see a reference to software architecture since that concept is far more common than enterprise architecture ;)