What s the difference between Solutions Architect and Applications Architect

Question

As far as I can see Solutions Architect is just a different  marketing  term for Applications Architect  Is that correct or are the roles actually different somehow  If so  how   And yes  I have searched for this both on StackOverflow and on Google

User · Answer

The spelling   Seriously though - they re both BS job title fluffing   Programmer  not good enough for you  Become an   Architect     Really    What is the world coming to    Edit  I clearly hurt some  architects   feelings   Edit 2  Though I agree with the sentiments that the phrasing can be interpreted to mean some people deal with the whole problem domain  eg hardware  software  deployment  maintaining   most people who want to satisfy a client  and make more money  will provide a full service  if required  regardless of their title    In real life  it s just marketing fluff

User · Answer

An  architect  is the title given to someone who can design multiple layers of applications that work together well at a high level  Anything that gets into a generic type of  architect  without a specific type of technology  i e   Solutions    Applications    Business   etc  is marketing speak

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There are valid differences between types of architects   Enterprise architects look at solutions for the enterprise aligining tightly with the enterprise strategy  Eg in a bank  they ll look at the complete IT landscape   Solution architects focus on a particular solution  for example a new credit card acquiring system in a bank   Domain architects focus on specific areas  for example an application architect or network architect   Technical architects generally play the role of solution architects with less focus on the business aspect and more on the techology aspect

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There are no industry standard definitions for Architect job titles -- Application System Software Solution Architect all refer in general to a senior developer with strong design and leadership skills   The balance of design  strategy  development  often of core services or frameworks  and management differ based on the organization and project   The only  Architect  job title that really has a different meaning for me is  Enterprise Architect   which I see as more of a IT strategy position

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Sounds like the same to me  Though I don t totally disagree with Oli  I d give a selected few people the Software Architect title if they want it but experience tells me the people who would actually deserve the title of Software Architect usually aint that in to titles

User · Answer

When your title doesn t fit on your business card because you wear too many hats  then someone wordsmiths a nifty title for you   e g  Programming IT Project Management Strategy Business Analyst  Other ways to receive an architect title    You spend more time on the phone and at the whiteboard than you do actually developing working software  You spend more time helping people set up Outlook Entourage than you do actually developing working software  You re really not that good of a coder to begin with

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In my experience  when I was consulting at Computer Associates  the marketing cry was  sell solutions  not products   Therefore  when we got a project and I needed to put on my architect s hat  I would be a Solutions Architect  as I would be designing a solution that would use a number of components  primarily CA products  and possibly some 3rd party or hand coded elements   Now I am more focused as a developer  I am an architect of applications themselves  therefore I am an Applications Architect   That s how I see it  however as has already been discussed  there is little in the way of naming standards

User · Answer

There is actually quite a difference  a solutions architect looks a a requirement holistically  say for example the requirement is to reduce the number of staff in a call center taking Pizza orders  a solutions architect looks at all of the component pieces that will have to come together to satisfy this  things like what voice recognition software to use  what hardware is required  what OS would be best suited to host it  integration of the IVR software with the provisioning system etc   An application archirect in this scenario on the other hand deals with the specifics of how the software will interact  what language is best suited  how to best use any existing api s  creating an api if none exists etc    Both have their place  both tasks must be done in order to staisfy the requirement and in large orgs you will have dedicated people doing it  in smaller dev shops often times a developer will have to pick up all of the architectural tasks as part of the overall development  because there is no-one else  imo its overly cynical to say that its just a marketing term  it is a real role  even if it s the dev picking it up ad-hoc  and particulary valuable at project kick-off

User · Answer

Basically in the world of IT certifications  you can call yourself just about anything you want as long as you don t step on the toes of a  real  professional organization   For example  you can be a  Microsoft Certified Solution Engineer  on your business card  but if you write the magic phrase  Professional Engineer   or P  Eng  you re in legal trouble unless you ve got that iron ring   I know there s a similar title for  real  architects  which I can t remember  but as long as you don t mention that you can be a  Cisco Certified Network Architect  or similar

User · Answer

No  an architect has a different job than a programmer   The architect is more concerned with nonfunctional   ility   requirements   Like reliability  maintainability  security  and so on    If you don t agree  consider this thought experiment  compare a CGI program written in C that does a complicated website  versus a Ruby on Rails implementation   They both have the same functional behavior  choosing an RoR architecture has what advantages    Generally  a  solution architect  is about the whole system -- hardware  software  and all -- which an  application architect  is working within a fixed platform  but the terms aren t that rigorous or well standardized

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Update 1 5 2018 - over the last 9 years  my thinking has evolved considerably on this topic  I tend to live a little closer to the bleeding edge in our industry than the majority  though certainly not pushing the boundaries nearly as much as a lot of really smart people out there   I ve been an architect at varying levels from application  to solution  to enterprise  at multiple companies large and small  I ve come to the conclusion that the future in our technology industry is one mostly without architects  If this sounds crazy to you  wait a few years and your company will probably catch up  or your competitors who figure it out will catch up with  and pass  you  The fundamental problem is that  architecture  is nothing more or less than the sum of all the decisions that have been made about your application solution portfolio  So the title  architect  really means  decider   That says a lot  also by what it doesn t say  It doesn t say  builder   Creating a career path   hierarchy that implicitly tells people  building  is lower than  deciding   and  deciders  are not directly responsible  by the difference in title  for  building   People who are still hanging on to their architect title will chafe at this and protest  but I am hands-on   Great  if you re just a builder then give up your meaningless title and stop setting yourself apart from the other builders  Companies that emphasize  all builders are deciders  and all deciders are builders  will move faster than their competitors  We use the title  engineer  for everyone  and  engineer  means deciding and building   Original answer   For people who have never worked in a very large organization  or have  but it was a dysfunctional one    architect  may have left a bad taste in their mouth  However  it is  not only a legitimate role  but a highly strategic one for smart companies    When an application becomes so vast and complex that dealing with the overall technical vision and planning  and translating business needs into technical strategy becomes a full-time job  that is an application architect  Application architects also often mentor and or lead developers  and know the code of their responsible application s  well  When an organization has so many applications and infrastructure inter-dependencies that it is a full-time job to ensure their alignment and strategy without being involved in the code of any of them  that is a solution architect  Solution architect can sometimes be similar to an application architect  but over a suite of especially large applications that comprise a logical solution for a business  When an organization becomes so large that it becomes a full-time job to coordinate the high-level planning for the solution architects  and frame the terms of the business technology strategy  that role is an enterprise architect  Enterprise architects typically work at an executive level  advising the CxO office and its support functions as well as the business as a whole    There are also infrastructure architects  information architects  and a few others  but in terms of total numbers these comprise a smaller percentage than the  big three    Note  numerous other answers have said there is  no standard  for these titles  That is not true  Go to any Fortune 1000 company s IT department and you will find these titles used consistently   The two most common misconceptions about  architect  are    An architect is simply a more senior higher-earning developer with a fancy title An architect is someone who is technically useless  hasn t coded in years but still throws around their weight in the business  making life difficult for developers   These misconceptions come from a lot of architects doing a pretty bad job  and organizations doing a terrible job at understanding what an architect is for  It is common to promote the top programmer into an architect role  but that is not right  They have some overlapping but not identical skillsets  The best programmer may often be  but is not always  an ideal architect  A good architect has a good understanding of many technical aspects of the IT industry  a better understanding of business needs and strategies than a developer needs to have  excellent communication skills and often some project management and business analysis skills  It is essential for architects to keep their hands dirty with code and to stay sharp technically  Good ones do

[architecture] What's the difference between "Solutions Architect" and "Applications Architect"?

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