Architect Role Taxonomy

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Paul Priess wrote an interesting post called The foundation skill set for architects. He also wrote for the Microsoft Architecture Journal 15 - The Role of an Architect. In this post, he provides a link to the IASA recently published Architect Taxonomy (click here to download the pdf).

He talks a bit about how other companies view the role of an architect and how they contrast w/ IASA's view. The list included:

  • The Open Group
  • SEI
  • Vendors: IBM, Microsoft, EDS, Unisys, Infosys, etc
  • OMG
  • Thought Leaders: Bredemeyer, Zachman, Ambler, Booch, etc.

Paul believes that The Open Group (TOGAF / ITAC) and Microsoft has provided a great deal of publicly available information and leadership in the area of defining the role of an architect. He says:

The Open Group lists roughly 17 skills in their conformance requirements for their certification (check out their listing here) and Microsoft lists roughly 55 (check out their listing here). The final skills list from the IASA includes a detailed taxonomy (click here to download the pdf) with over 250 listed skills in an immense level of precision.

He goes on to talk about the foundations in the taxonomy that roll up to a core set 5 categories of skills:

  • business technology strategy skills
  • quality attribute skills
  • design skills
  • IT environment skills
  • human dynamics skills

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