Software architect – Wikipedia

L’ Software architect is an IT expert who is responsible for creating and respecting the software architecture model. He distinguishes himself from the computer architect who works on equipment.

He is an approved professional computer scientist or a software engineer who is a member of a professional order in several countries.

The role of software architect can, in small projects, be held by the analyst, the project manager or the developer responsible for the project. In large companies, it is possible to find a chief software architect which is responsible for the application of architectural standards to all projects and the management and reuse of the company’s software components. In major projects, it is possible to find a software architect and several software sub-architects, managers of disjoin parties of the software to build.

The functional analyst, the software architect and the software engineer have separate responsibilities: the first pilot the use cases, the second architecture and the third development.

In France, in 2010, the national repertoire of professional certifications lists only one training as “software architect” ^{[ first ]} provided by AFCEPF.

The software architect needs to have a global vision of the system to design or maintain. It is at this level that its role is the most important because it is often the only one to have the capacity to anticipate, or failing to detect and solve the problems resulting from the interaction between the different parts of this system or The use of subsystems by other subsystems. For example, it can be problems of interoperability, productivity, integration or performance. Consequently, he often works with an abstract and synthetic vision of the system considered.

However, it also has the need to remain practical, in contact with the daily problems of software engineers, and the difficulties they experience in implementing the recommended solutions, applying patterns not necessarily as easy as the architect as the architect software might think. There are many factors influencing developers’ productivity and work comfort: development environment integrating configuration management issues which are often very thorny, access to documentation, planning constraints, etc. It is of course necessary to add to this list the work produced by the software architect itself; Only the confrontation with the “real world” of developers makes it possible to determine its degree of adequacy if necessary. It is therefore imperative that the software architect spends time to experience the solutions he offers, possibly going so far as to produce himself, in a production environment identical to that of developers, of the code implementing them in order to Test it and concretely assess the advantages and disadvantages of these solutions.

Reconciling recoil with the maintenance of close contact with “the world of developers” is a difficult exercise on large projects, and one of the possible pitfalls of the role of software architect is to isolate oneself in its vision abstract and do not manage to keep in touch with reality. This is called the “Ivory Tower syndrome”.

In France, the name of DPLG architect is a protected title, strictly reserved for persons holding the architect’s diploma and registered on the board of the Council of the Order of Architects, exercising in the building sector excluding any other. The designation presented in this article therefore has only an unofficial character in France. The usurpation of the professional title of DPLG architect , exposes the interested parties to criminal proceedings.

Unlike the DPLG architect, it is possible to exercise software, technical and computer architects with a multitude of diplomas and after a few years of experience.