Architecting Business Solutions vs. the Business of architecting technology solutions
- Mohan Babu K (cross posted from the Managing Offshore IT blog)
While reading Andrew Manning’s blog entry on “Enterprise Architects: Time for more job titles?” I began thinking about a barbeque I attended at a friend's place few weeks ago where colleagues and peers had gathered. It was interesting to observe that folks who had gathered were finding it hard to pick on neutral topics beyond the day’s weather and the difficulty in maintaining the lawn, using the host’s backyard as a case-in-point. It was not hard to see why. A few were from the ‘sales’ side of our business – account managers, engagement leaders and the like – and others from the consulting side - IT architects and consultants. And not surprisingly, it was the few Marchitectects in our midstwho were trying to find an icebreaker.
Going back to Andrew’s list, I guess, one title, I would add is Enterprise Marchitects: folks at service firms who act as a bridge between sales and consulting. The “Enterprise Architects” at service firms - many of whom are also Marchitects - have a distinct role to play in the industry. The role also comes with its share of challenges for obvious reasons:
- Consulting Architects are generally sought ought in the industry and are well compensated, because of which their services also command premium/higher billing rates. From a software services context, it also means that Architects can add to a significant ‘cost’ component of a typical project. Cognizant of client’s cost constraints, the some Account Managers are more comfortable underselling the need for an architect to ensure a bigger pie of rest of the project rather than translate ‘cost’ to demonstrate ‘value.’ This means the architect, who is already under pressure to be continually ‘billable’ also has to juggle the hat of a Marchitect
- Architects also need to accept the fact that though they bring a specialized/niche skill to the table, they are still considered as ‘resources,’ both to a firm’s own sales folks and of course to client’s FTEs and program stakeholders who naturally look at external consultants as hired-guns.
- Another Marchitecture dimension is to juggle the buzz from internal and external spin doctors. Those of us who have been in the industry long enough know what I mean by spin doctors: folks who can take archaic sounding acronyms coined by industry analysts, visualize a few possible ‘scenarios’ and ‘solutions’ and start preaching it to clients, all with the conviction of a convert.
Enterprise Architects with service firms juggle the above challenges, along with their day-jobs of helping clients architect robust, scalable technology and business solutions. Which brings us back to where I started: the delicate balance between Architecting business and technology solutions - which architects are skilled at – and the business of architecting technology solutions (read ‘selling’ architecture as a service) which is a skill Architects try to acquire. Now, this yin-yang has another dimension to it: measuring the ‘value’ that a consulting Enterprise Architect/Marchitect brings to the table. …
I will continue the line of thinking in my next post
