In my first post about EA, I mentioned that there are no concrete job descriptions for an enterprise architect and maybe it was up to the individual companies to define the requirements of the job.
I started reading Scott Ambler and James McGovern’s book, A Practical Guide to Enterprise Architecture. The forward and preface has some interesting points about what the authors think EA should be and what the architect should be able to do for a company. The authors point out that not only are architecture and design different, but they must “be overt and separate.” Architecture is about the relationships, behavior, and characteristics of a system, while design is how the system is built.
EA identifies the components in a business how they fit together to achieve business objects. The components are not just technical, but have to include the personnel and business processes. While an architect must be technically competent, he must also have the soft skills to deal with the politics and be able to communicate the philosophy to the stakeholders. All this has to be done even if the architect does not have the authority or control to fulfill his responsibilities.