LifeinTECH

What is an IT Architect?

This is not always an easy questions to answer. In my opinion, the role of an IT Architect sits at the intersection of business and technology, requires a detailed understanding of the customer, technical breadth and depth, as well as a proven record of delivery.

Personally, I’m responsible for technology architecture, which involves defining and maintaining the target state, through the creation of a reference architecture, principles, standards, positioning and patterns. These concepts are cascaded across the IT community, providing a north star and driving better strategic decision making, by triggering the right solution architecture conversations.

This is all great, but it can still be difficult to relate these words in the real-world. Thankfully, Tom Cozzolino (an Architect at Salesforce.com) recently created the following video, which does a great job of describing the many aspects of an IT Architects role.

Although the video obviously references Salesforce.com, this can largely be ignored, as the concepts Tom describes are highly transferable, regardless of the specific technology stack.