Solution architect role during project phases
A solution architect's daily role on a customer project will vary greatly with the size, approach, and phase of the project. This unit explores some of the common project activities that a solution architect will either be responsible for or, at a minimum, participate in.
The discussion here will be without regard to a specific implementation methodology.
Presales
The primary activity of presales is supporting the sales team on landing the project. Occasionally, the solution architect is dedicated to presales activities. In other cases, solution architects are only pulled in as needed. With presales, the focus is on the minimal effort that is required to land the project while ensuring that the sales team does not oversell what you can deliver. Activities during this phase of the engagement can primarily be categorized as follows:
Request for Proposal (RFP) responses - Handling tough technical questions that the sales team could not complete and reviewing other's responses to ensure that they are feasible and aligned with the level of effort estimated.
Introductory customer meetings - Typically, along with the account team, the solution architect can participate as a technical resource to help field questions on possible solutions or outcomes. For the solution architect, this situation is a great opportunity to learn about the customer's current environment, needs, and their desired outcomes. Later in this learning path, you will explore techniques to prepare for these meetings and how to make the most of the encounter.
Proof of concepts /demos - While the solution architect might not be the one building the POC/demo, they are often indispensable in helping to envision and craft what the POC or demo will highlight. Solution architects are expected to have a deep awareness of the different pre-built applications and available integrations that can be combined to highlight a proposed solution. They should also help the team decide what parts of a proposed solution are worth building out to highlight the proposed approach.
Solution envisioning - While this might be part of a customer meeting, it can also happen independently to generate ideas on how to approach a customer's problem. Often, the presales stage of a project will be high-level, but it can also be done later in the project during each of the sprints in a more detailed exercise. Solution envisioning is simply considering the customer's needs and then developing those needs into a concept of a proposed solution.
A key skill for a solution architect in this phase of a project is the ability to communicate with all levels of a customer's organization. Often, solution architects translate technical topics into a more business focused discussion.
Solution architects must also be skilled at answering questions in a way that is accurate but does not create two more questions for every one answered.
While solution architects are not required to be an expert on product licensing, they should have a grasp of the implications of licensing for their proposed solutions. In some cases, they might be required to architect within the license constraints for what a customer has purchased or is willing to purchase.
In this phase, a skilled solution architect can spot opportunities that the rest of the sales team might have missed and then highlight these opportunities to the team to allow upsell of services. Alternatively, solution architects can suggest different approaches that might better address a requirement or need.
Initiation
Initiation covers the start of a project after signing or possibly the start of a new significant sprint/iteration. At this stage, the solution architect's focus is on helping the project manager staff the project team and find the right mix of resources to complete the work. The solution architect will also be responsible for putting in place the methodology, life-cycle management, and other key project items.
Analysis/design
While the solution architect might not be capturing every requirement, they are involved and often lead customer workshops to identify the key workstreams. As the project progresses into design of the solution, the solution architect takes the lead. Depending on the methodology that is used, some of this work might be completed up front or, more commonly, done with each sprint/iteration in more agile projects.
Customer workshops - The solution architect often leads these requirement capture discussions with the business users who are working to drive toward a thorough understanding of the needs. Frequently, the solution architect must challenge the participants to determine the real need and separate it from how it is currently being completed in existing systems or processes.
Requirement validation and clarification - The solution architect will review the detailed requirements that are collected, including those specified as user stories. The goal is to ensure that they are implementable requirements that are clear and concise. The solution architect will also be looking to identify and add non-functional requirements as needed. This task might require additional follow-up with the customer or team to ensure understanding of requirements before construction of a solution.
High-level architecture - The solution architect takes the lead on designing the overall solution topology and communicating this with the broader project team. Included in this assessment would be any Dynamics 365, AppSource, or other external services that would be used, including the broad view of interactions with internal and external systems and services.
Detail Solution Architecture - The solution architect would also take the lead on, but not perform all, the detail solution design work. This task would include designing the security and data models and the overall integration strategy for each external system and service. Additionally, this process involves specification of customizations to Dynamics 365 apps and any other existing apps that will be used. The solution architect will often use a fit gap analysis to identify the gaps between the requirements and the out-of-the-box capabilities.
Review technical designs - As the architecture starts to progress into detail designs by the broader project team, the solution architect would assume the role of reviewer to ensure that the designs fit within the desired architecture.
Change management - While solution architects are generally not responsible for leading change management, they are instrumental in triaging and evaluating the impact of proposed changes. Change management is a key element to ensuring on time, on budget solutions that customers enjoy using. The solution architect must help the team avoid scope creep while at the same time allowing changes that are essential to meeting the project success criteria. Exceptional change management is necessary from this point forward in the project.
Implementation
By this point, the solution architect has set the path that the implementation teams will follow, and the role switches more to helping the project manager ensure that the teams continue with the specified plan and architecture. This task includes participating in and facilitating in reviews with the team to ensure that implementation is meeting the architecture, in addition to conducting reviews with the customer to ensure that the solution is meeting their needs.
The solution architect is also instrumental in problem solving because the challenges will often span multiple teams, and the solution architect is one of the few people who understands all the moving parts across teams. The solution architect will work with the Quality Assurance (QA) team to ensure that the testing that is performed exercises all parts of the architecture, including disaster recovery and performance testing. Also, change management is still at the top of the list of activities because increasing scope during implementation can have a negative impact on the success of the project.
Delivery
As the project team moves closer to handing off all or a part of the solution, a delivery team is typically put in place. This team might consist of a virtual team of participants from other teams on the project. The solution architect is involved in helping the team build the deployment team and validate the plan. Regarding the implementation phase, the solution architect is often best positioned for triaging problems that arise during deployment. The solution architect might also participate in advising the business on a go/no-go decision.
Operation
As the system moves into production and then onto daily operation, a solution architect won't have a lot to deal with until enhancements are made that need designing or bugs are found that must be fixed.
A solution architect is a key element on a project, and a proficient solution architect knows how to work well with the whole project team and will increase efforts as needed to ensure project success.