Bearing in mind that strategic competency is just one of the three areas that Architect needs to have master, yet it is very valuable and the area that brings most people undone.
A. As a minimum:
- Understand the stereo typical application of the business's product or service.
- Understands the business's market place.
- Understand the strategy that has adopted to take the product or service to the market.
- Layout tactical options which are in keeping with the architectural strategy.
B. In addition to (A) above the person with satisfactory skills would:
- Understand the rationale behind the strategy that has been adopted.
- Capable of investigating new technologies that could be leveraged to deliver a competitive advantage.
- Capable of balancing immediate tactical requirements with long-term objectives.
- Capable to road mapping the technology associated with the product or service.
- Capable of setting the technical direction for a product or service.
C. In addition to (A) & (B) above, the person can be considered a technology leader or innovator:
- Capable of setting the technical direction over the whole organisation.
- Capable of bring together devise groups internally and externally to deliver strategic requirement.
- Discover value creation opportunities.
- Translate the business strategy into a technical strategy.
- Explain the strategy to the developers and technical members in a relevant and meaningful manner.
- Advise high-level strategy setters about technology and technical capabilities.
- Be able to contribute at the strategic level of the business.
Some would say the above skills might more be in the realms of a CTO or CIO, the difference is that an Architect can only achieve his results via influence and therefore does not have any direct power as such.
