Under The Scope: The Difference Between Enterprise Architecture and Solution Architecture
In the last couple of years, there has been a considerable number of debates about Enterprise Architecture. What Enterprise Architects do, why it is necessary and how it is different from Solution Architecture (SA) are only a small portion of the questions EA community has to answer day after day.
The troubles in defining Enterprise Architecture are somewhat because of the fact EA is working with abstractions. EA need to consider the entire perspective in order to create a solution for the whole enterprise. That being said, EA's work is continually evolving and it never ends. On the other hand, SA's work has a start, middle, and end.
While Solution Architecture is frequently viewed as useful and vital for business improvement, EA remains misjudged and presented as an isolated part of the business with little contact with genuine issues and development opportunities.
But, big organizations require the both parts in order to build efficient architecture and achieve results. Below is the clarification of the roles of SA and EA.
Solution Architecture SA is utilized to direct the design and organization of the product solutions and guarantee technical consistency and integrity of the solution in each phase of the process. SA usually spend a large portion of their time coordinating technical parts of the initiative - from idea definition, examination of requirements and implementation, to general maintenance.
Enterprise Architecture EA is utilized to create a bridge between business to IT. It has a solid knowledge about enterprise architecture software, platforms, techniques and procedures in business as well as IT. EA is used to describe the connections within the enterprise and connections of enterprise and outer environment. Other than that, EA is also in charge of picking the best technology (which doesn't always mean the newest) that fits well to the company and the employees.
Still not sure what’s the difference between EA and SA? Read the full article here.