IT Planning and Management - Additional Resources

Consolidated Guidance: Forming the Technical Architecture Team

Interactions

This team primarily interacts with the IT Strategy Team , the IT Program and its constituent projects , business-unit leadership as represented by the HS Agency Decision Team , as well as others internal and external to the HS Agency context .

Scope

The Technical Architecture Team has full responsibility for developing and maintaining the Technical Architecture as described in the A-TARS . The team:

Is responsible for identifying and specifying HS Agency design standards for key processing entities, interfaces, and services used across the HS Agency. This implies that, as technology is used to implement the standards, it should be reviewed for compliance against these standards. The team, therefore, may act as a reviewer of Automated Information System designs against the Technical Architecture.
Will serve to arbitrate design disputes across projects or systems.
Will perform tradeoff analysis to reduce significant cost, schedule, or technical risk relating to technical design choices.
Will provide input to strategic planning, such as the technical aspects of the goals, principles, and initiatives.

Team Structure

Core Team

A small set of individuals is permanently assigned, generally 3-5 technical staff. These individuals have stewardship over the evolving Technical Architecture, ensuring that its elements are internally consistent and meet architectural goals. To keep the team small and effective, individuals should be multi-disciplined. The Core Team is led by a Chief Architect. The Chief Architect acts as the project manager for the architecture project.

Extended Team

In-depth technical skills and knowledge are required to fulfill the architect's role. These individuals may be in short supply and will have highly specialized focus areas (e.g., networking, data storage and access, human factors, security, internationalization, business policy and rules). Individuals with specific skills are added to the architecture team, as needed, to address technical specialty areas. These individuals can be from within or external to the HS Agency (e.g., contractors , or consultants from other State Agencies or departments). When joining the team, these members are given an orientation to the team processes and conventions. They are removed from the team when their talents are no longer necessary. They may be assigned to the team either full-time or part-time.

Selection Guidance

Consider the following in selecting individuals for this team:

These individuals should be opinion leaders, that is, individuals with proven track records whom others in the organization can trust and respect. This attribute is essential because some changes that the HS Agency may need to make may alter well-established business practices.
These individuals serve as facilitators and technical liaisons to the other teams planning and executing the IT Program and its constituent projects .
These individuals advise the HS Agency Decision Team and the IT Strategy Team on technical issues.
Members join the Architecture Team when specific expertise is needed to cover the elements being integrated into the Technical Architecture.
They are well versed in the technology area, have worked at the detailed level (hands-on), but are able to generalize and articulate the common principles and concepts separately from any single approach to implementing a specific solution.
The are aware of the current State technology inventory and technology trends within the industry in their specialty areas.
They are able to write and express the technical descriptions and guidelines in an effective manner.
They are able to see the big picture and are capable of global/system thinking. They can effect tradeoffs that don't inadvertently suboptimize the overall architecture for their particular area of specialty.
They should be available to be assigned for significant periods of time, such as 12-24 months for a Core Team member, 2-6 months for an extended team member.

The Chief Architect is critical to the effectiveness of this team and, as such, should also possess the following qualities:

Strong team skills, able to fashion the individual team members into a cohesive unit
Leadership, able to identify and resolve disputes
Well-respected by the team members and others in the organization, especially executive leadership
Strong management skills, able to organize, plan, and track the architecture activities and ensure that technical risks are appropriately addressed

Team Member Roles

General roles for the team members are provided below. Individuals may be permanently assigned as part of the Core Team, or temporary as part of the Extended Team.

Chief Architect. Overall responsibility to ensure the integration and integrity of Team work products. Works as a technical manager. Has participated on many projects through the HS Agency. Is recognized as a senior leader by the HS programs.
Team Facilitator. The individual that serves as the focal point for the team, ensuring that it stays mission-focused. This person is a respected, neutral party, working to ensure that team disputes are handled, and the team decisions represent member consensus. Works as a span between the other teams (HS Agency Decision Team and Program/Project teams) to ensure communication flow. Appointed by the Chief Architect.
Technology Specialist. These individuals represent specialty areas within the architecture. Specialists are added and remain on the Team as needed. Specialty areas include distributed designs, networking, software development environments, database management systems, reliability, test, security, and others. Each major section of the Agencies Technical Architecture Reference Set should be assigned to an individual with expertise and direct experience in that area.

In addition to the roles mentioned above, individuals will be provided to assist in Team administrative functions, as necessary. Administrative assistance will be managed by the Team Facilitator.

Maintaining Technical Competencies

Developing and maintaining a deep understanding of the technologies is key to the architect's effectiveness. The members of the Architecture Team should have access to technical as well as program and business focused training, conferences, and orientations. This will allow them to become well rounded and understand not only the technical aspects, but how it affects the business domains. Extended Team members should be provided orientation on the architecture team processes whenever they are assigned. Team members should serve as mentors or advisors to one another and the IT projects.

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