Collaboration of Solution Architects and Project Managers

Abstract

If IT projects are to be successful, they must meet business requirements, and they must be efficiently managed. IT projects need methodological skills to manage resources as well as technical capabilities for architectural planning and solution design. Project managers and solution architects represent two highly-qualified leadership roles in IT projects, both of which analyze requirements and both of which are responsible for supplying IT solutions. In predictive IT infrastructure projects, solution architects' technology skills complement project managers' organizational competencies. The combination of those skills improves requirements elicitation that is the key for IT project achievement. Project managers and solution architects closely collect and evaluate requirements and specify the scope in the planning phase. The relationship between these roles is examined by the IT management literature and established practitioner frameworks. Finally, suggestions for collaboration are derived and presented in the IT solution life cycle model.