Solution Architecture
- Focuses on the big picture
- Considers the wider business and technology landscape
- Examines incumbent and planned technology
- Factors in people and culture
- Strategic in nature
- Encourages platform building and technology re-use
- Seeks to leverage or augment existing solutions
- Aims to contribute artefacts to the solution repository
- Involves a broader range of stakeholders
- Aligns technology solutions with business objectives
- Facilitates communication between technical and non-technical teams
- Takes a long-term view of organisational needs
- Considers future scalability and adaptability
- Aims to create lasting, reusable solutions
- Works at a higher level of abstraction
- Defines overall structure, major components, and their relationships
- Creates blueprints and guidelines for multiple solutions
Solution Design
- Often done in isolation
- Concentrates on specific technical details
- Has a narrower focus on immediate project requirements
- More tactical in approach
- Focuses on implementing specific features or components
- May not always consider long-term strategic goals
- Typically involves primarily technical stakeholders
- Focuses on translating requirements into technical specifications
- Often focused on immediate project deliverables
- May have a shorter-term perspective
- Deals with more concrete, detailed specifications
- Focuses on how individual components will be implemented
While these distinctions exist, effective solution development often requires collaboration between architects and designers.
Architects provide the overarching framework and strategic direction, while designers bring depth in specific technical areas.
The best outcomes are achieved when both roles work in harmony, ensuring that individual solutions fit into the broader architectural vision whilst meeting immediate project needs.
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