Alternate Job Titles
Solutions Architect, Cloud Architecture Specialist, Software Architect, Technical Architect, Application Architect, IT Architect
Functional Group
Software and Systems
Job Family
Development and Deployment
Job Description
- Establish technical standards, make high-level design decisions, and guarantee the software system’s scalability, maintainability, and security.
- Offer insightful commentary and suggestions to the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC).
- Collaborate with a variety of stakeholders, including business analysts, project managers, and software developers, to ensure that the software architecture fits the needs and objectives of the project.
- Provide technical direction to the development team, mentor junior developers, and instil architectural best practices.
- Formulate strategic roadmaps by analysing the business architecture and evaluating the gap between the current state and the desired future state.
- Review and authorize proposed changes to software architecture standards to ensure alignment with the enterprise architecture.
- Govern the software architecture process by leading its implementation, promoting best practices, and controlling all exceptions to established standards.
- Evaluate immediate needs to determine business priorities and synchronises
architectural specifications with IT strategy. - Advise senior management on emerging technologies and consults with clients and IT teams on software architecture solutions.
- Formulate the conceptual and detailed architecture for the development of applications and supervise the creation of standards and guidelines to be used in software development and integration.
Critical Work Function
Enterprise Architecture Governance and Standards
- Establish standards and guidelines for
developing and designing software system,
structure, components and interactions, quality
assurance and scalability requirements. - Facilitate key discussions between business and
technical stakeholders to drive architectural
decisions and ensure alignment within a specific
functional area. - Contribute to technology planning, environment
analysis, opportunity identification, and
architectural input. - Formulate strategic roadmap and
implementation plans by conducting a gap
analysis between the current and desired
future-state architectures. - Develop guidelines for developing and designing
software systems, their structure, components
and interactions, and requirements for quality
assurance and futureproofing. - Lead the software architecture governance
process by reviewing and approving standards
and controlling all exceptions to ensure
alignment with the enterprise governance
structure. - Create, maintain, and regularly update
comprehensive architecture documents,
including system diagrams, design decisions,
data flows, and technical standards to ensure
clarity and consistency across teams.
Architecture Specification and Oversight
- Oversee the development of architectural
requirements by evaluating business priorities,
ensuring alignment with the IT strategy, and
verifying the solution’s compliance with
strategic needs and the existing technology
environment. - Organise the implementation and change of the
architecture. - Determine and deal with any risks or limitations
that might influence the software development
process. - Identify, assess, and mitigate architectural
risks related to performance bottlenecks,
system integration challenges, and security
vulnerabilities. - Support post-implementation and ongoing
efforts for improvement to boost functionality
and performance. - Verify the technological solution’s conceptual
completion. - Oversee the quality and ongoing enhancement of
the architecture. - Assess the current architecture to identify areas
for improvement and recommend modifications
required to meet project needs and enhance
performance. - Continuously assess the quality of the system
architecture to ensure its ongoing scalability,
maintainability, and security.
Technology Advisory and Consultancy
- Offer advice on software architecture solutions
to clients and IT teams. - Examine risks, impact, cost vs. benefit, and
technological priorities. - Develop and execute a communication strategy
to articulate the software architecture’s design,
value, and evolution to stakeholders. - Assess latest technological trends in the industry
and evaluate the suitability of such development
to support the client’s requirements. - Determine the resource requirements of the
organisation.Offer advice on software architecture solutions
to clients and IT teams. - Examine risks, impact, cost vs. benefit, and
technological priorities. - Develop and execute a communication strategy
to articulate the software architecture’s design,
value, and evolution to stakeholders. - Assess latest technological trends in the industry
and evaluate the suitability of such development
to support the client’s requirements. - Determine the resource requirements of the
organisation.
Software Architecture Design
- Establish and ensure adherence to a
structured Software Development Life Cycle
(SDLC), defining standardized phases such as
requirements gathering, design, development,
testing, deployment, and maintenance to
promote consistency, quality, and compliance in
software delivery. - Model the conceptual and technical architecture
needed to create applications. - Specify the procedures and approach for
migrating from the present software architecture
to the new one. - Design interfaces to ensure seamless and
secure integration between internal systems and
external third-party platforms.
Entry Requirements
#1
Software Architect
BDQF Level 6 in Information Systems, Computer Science, or any related field, with related industry certification, and a minimum of 5 years of relevant experience OR
BDQF Level 5 in Information Systems, Computer Science, or any related field, with related industry certification or possesses relevant portfolio/experience and a minimum of 8 years of relevant experience.
Skills & Competencies
Technical Skills
Soft Skills
Recommended Technical Training Courses
The CPSA® Advanced Level – iSAQB® Advanced Training in Software Architecture
TOGAF® Enterprise Architecture Training Course (Foundation and Practitioner)
Certified Professional for Software Architecture (CPSA)
Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)
Amazon Web Services (AWS) Solution Architect – Associate/Professional
Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Certified Kubernetes Application Developer (CKAD)