How To Become An Enterprise Architect? Courses & Opportunities

Any organisation will have a certain definition of its goals and objectives of its own at the time of establishment. Over the years, as the organisation expands itself, the agendas would undergo subsequent changes. In the case of most older organisations, the goals and methods of achieving such goals underwent a major shift when IT was introduced into the picture. In today's context, irrespective of the field or domain the organisation is associated with, it will have an IT department of its own. To spearhead the working of the IT department, so it leads the organisation to meet its future goals and objectives, is the duty of the enterprise architect.

Clearly, the implementation of such multi-year plans that aligns with the organisation's overall business plans is no child's play. One needs to be professionally qualified and intellectually capable for the same. That is why the role of enterprise architects is very important in the overall functioning of the organisation.

To explore the career options of such visionaries and find out if you fit in there, this article brings to do all that you need to know about being an enterprise architect.

• Job Role

The first and foremost duty of such people is to come up with ways and means to bring down the cost in business leadership and the overall IT infrastructure. Understand that this is a support job and not one of development or testing.

Thus, in such a dynamic environment, the enterprise architect will have to identify ways of improving the employee skill set so that the future growth of the company is moved in the correct direction. An extensive research in the talent management industry needs to be conducted for the same.

That will enable enterprise architects to provide a detailed business architecture (which will be penned in a very detailed and clear format that everyone can understand) and other forms of technical systems processing guidance.

• Educational Qualifications

Since this is a technical job role, a bachelor's degree in engineering is required. Alternatively, some organisations also take candidates from the pure science background (like that of physics or mathematics). Irrespective of the aforementioned backgrounds, having an MBA gives a candidate an edge over that of their peers.

Usually, freshers are not preferred and most established firms demand two or more years of experience in defining and implementing strategies under a CIO (or anything that is equivalent) while hiring candidates for this particular position. An experience in working with enterprise architecture at the grass-root level is given a lot of weightage here.

Knowledge of cloud computing and network security procedures also helps you to have a clearer understanding of the overall IT network and thereby paves the way for a more technologically equipped and well-planned architecture.

. Skill Set

This job involves taking feedback from multiple stakeholders and teammates and implementing the same for the betterment of the company. In such a situation, it is important for a person who is working in such a position of power to have high integrity to uphold the values of the organisation.

In many cases, the job role may require you to negotiate with others. Thus, effective communication skills coupled with the diplomatic attitude will take you places here. The skill set of being passionate yet considerate is necessary for enterprise architects.

One must also be flexible and be ready to work in different working conditions. They should be able to keep their head calm during moments of high stress as this job will often put you under very trying conditions.

• Salary

As this is a job for experienced people in particular, the salary that is associated with it is also equally lucrative. Only the creamy layer of IT employees make their way to this career choice. The average salary here stands at INR 22,48,345. Candidates with more than two decades of IT experience and those working from the metro cities are often seen to be earning higher.

Speaking from a technical perspective, candidates who are experienced and have due certifications in information architecture and cloud computing are also seen to be paid better than their other counterparts.

• Job Scope

Since this job is not for freshers, there is no concept of campus recruitment here. Most of the companies advertise on their company website or through job portals like Naukri.com, Monster.com and others. Companies like Accenture, IBM, HP, Cisco and Sony are amongst the biggest recruiters.

Smaller firms and start-ups also require people in these roles. Once a person takes up this position, they can progress to roles of higher responsibility like that of chief architect, director of PMO and others. It is enterprise architects who gradually progress to roles of business managers and eventually the most competent of them make their way to the board of directors of any organisation.

• Working Environment

This job is a perfect blend of technical and managerial role. Thus, one needs to stay updated and a couple of hours of the working day should be devoted to studying. It is advised that enterprise architects update themselves with TOGAF certification, AGM certification and advanced system governance.

In the case of most IT companies, any project is located across multiple locations. In such cases, there is only one enterprise architect supervising the same. Thus, such a person will have a considerable amount of travelling in their work schedule.

Thus, by now you must have seen that the future is one of immense possibilities for a person who is an enterprise architect. This statement holds good irrespective of the geographical location or time zone that you are working from.

Ideally, the course of action would be to join in this role and then stay with the organisation, and thereby climb up the corporate ladder with due experience and hard work. Here is wishing you the best in all such endeavours.