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What does the title System Architect really mean? What do you need to know to be a system architect. Do you need to know design patterns or something like that? At work we have a couple so called "System Architects". They do the same stuff as we developers, but the distinction are that they are older and thus has more experience and knowledge of the business domain we work in. But I'm not really seeing the architecting side of work really...

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The ability to describe oneself as a system architect without laughing? – Martin Beckett Oct 17 '12 at 15:24
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It's the guy at the end of the second matrix movie, who nobody understands. Seriously, though, the Systems Architect Wikipedia article describes the job pretty well. What can we tell you that the Wikipedia article doesn't already adequately cover? – Robert Harvey Oct 17 '12 at 15:28
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I like the term "Solution Architect" even better. Never met anyone with "Solution" in his/her title who knew anything about anything worth knowing, except maybe getting a fat paycheck. – Andres F. Oct 17 '12 at 15:30
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I'm with @RobertHarvey - what else can we add or what's not clear? Voting to close. – GlenH7 Oct 17 '12 at 15:45

closed as not constructive by Robert Harvey, Telastyn, GlenH7, jk., Caleb Oct 17 '12 at 16:22

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1 Answer

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#define SA Software_Architect
#define SD Software_Developer

You might have seen Spiderman - With Greater Power comes Bigger Responsibilites. You can say the same when a SD becomes a SA.

  1. The difference is as simple as a Civil Engineer and a builder. The SA is responsible for drawing up plans for a new software to be built (you can say Blueprint) while SD is responsible for implementing and coding them.
  2. The SD, when gets experienced and thus naturally a bit older, then he turns into a SA.
  3. The SA also has some knowledge of business aspects of the software being built, which SD may not have.
  4. He is also responsible for the integrity of the entire project under him/her.

You can read about this in detail from Wikipedia pages of Software Architect and Software Developer. These pages define some standards for SD and SA.

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