Introduction to Solution Architecture
Connecting Enterprise Architecture to Implementation
Solution architecture plays a crucial role in ensuring that planned solutions fit within the broader enterprise architecture (EA) while addressing specific business and technical needs. It provides a high-level blueprint for how a solution functions, integrates with existing applications, and aligns with business goals.
Although many organizations create some form of architectural descriptions for solutions, few have a standardized approach or ensure alignment with their EA. This is a missed opportunity, as solution architecture is one of the most straightforward ways to utilize EA in practice.
Unlike detailed technical design, which specifies how applications are built, solution architecture focuses on the bigger picture—ensuring coherence across business, data, application, and technology perspectives. The best part? It requires relatively little effort but delivers significant benefits.
In this article, we’ll explore what solution architecture is, when it should be created, what it contains, and why it’s essential.
What Is Solution Architecture?
The term “solution architecture” can be interpreted in many ways. Some see it as a detailed technical implementation plan, while others take a broader approach. In this context, I use solution architecture to refer to a high-level description of how a specific solution works and how it fits within the organization’s EA.
Solution architecture does not replace detailed functional or technical specifications, but serves as a checklist to ensure that all critical aspects are considered before the project moves forward.
The term “solution” should be interpreted broadly. It could refer to:
A client-facing digital service, such as a web portal or a mobile app.
An internal IT application, like a CRM system, ERP module, or custom-built software.
A business process improvement, with or without technology.
An overhaul of a functional area, such as HR, billing, or supply chain management.
In most cases, a solution is something for which a project or even a larger program has been initiated.
Key Benefits of Solution Architecture
Solution architecture plays a vital role in project success, bridging business needs with technical implementation while ensuring alignment with enterprise-wide objectives. Its key benefits include:
Strategic Alignment: Ensures that projects contribute to long-term business and IT goals.
Risk Reduction: Surfaces potential architectural risks and other issues early, preventing costly mistakes later in the project lifecycle.
Improved Communication: Creates a shared understanding between business, IT, and development teams, as well as external IT service providers.
Consistency and Standardization: Promotes the reuse of existing technologies, IT components, platforms and best practices, reducing unnecessary variations in IT solutions.
Efficiency and Cost Savings: Avoids redundant work, accelerates project execution, and prevents unnecessary complexity. Solution architecture can even replace parts of extensive pre-studies and serve as input for requests for proposals (RFPs) when working with vendors.
Without solution architecture, projects risk being developed in isolation, leading to misalignment, duplication, and costly integration challenges down the road.
What Does Solution Architecture Contain?
Solution architecture describes how the solution operates across multiple perspectives, ensuring alignment with the organization’s business and IT environments. While the level of detail may vary, I recommend a lightweight approach that includes at least the following key descriptions:
Scope and Dependencies: Defines how the solution fits within the EA—what is in scope and what will change. Basically, it lists the EA elements affected. These can include, for example, the roles and organizational units involved, processes that will be modified, and applications to be created, updated, or replaced.
Layered Diagram: A process-like flow outlining how the solution will be used in the target state, detailing actors, tasks, and applications involved in executing the process. Most solutions need only one diagram, but larger solutions (like an ERP implementation) may require separate diagrams for each process it supports.
Applications and Data Flows: Identifies applications related to the solution and their interactions. Describes required data flows and integrations, ensuring that no integration need will be overlooked.
Additional designs, such as logical data models and technical platforms, can be included when necessary. Solution architecture may also briefly outline how the solution adheres to the organization’s architectural principles, if such guidelines exist.
To improve efficiency, it is essential to reuse existing EA content wherever possible. Rather than creating elements from scratch, solution architecture should incorporate shared elements, such as applications and processes directly from EA. This reliance on EA documentation means that if a well-defined current-state EA does not exist, developing solution architecture becomes more time-consuming. In such cases, greater effort is needed to ensure consistency and standardization across different solution architectures.
When and How Should Solution Architecture Be Created?
Solution architecture should be established as early as possible in a project—preferably during the ideation or planning phase and no later than the early design phase. Doing so helps validate whether the project should move forward before significant resources are invested. If key architectural decisions have already been made, solution architecture becomes little more than documentation, offering far less value.
Should every solution have a defined architecture? While not every initiative requires it, solution architecture should always be created when a solution impacts key EA elements, such as business processes or applications. Regardless of whether the solution is developed in-house or by an external vendor, it should align with the organization’s broader architecture. IT service providers should be required to define solution architecture to maintain this alignment. For consultants, establishing a solution architecture for client projects is equally valuable, ensuring clarity, consistency, and a shared understanding with the client.
Final Thoughts
Solution architecture serves as a vital bridge between EA and project execution. It provides a structured yet flexible framework that ensures solutions align with EA and business needs while being designed efficiently. To maximize its benefits, it should be created in a standardized manner. Since developing solution architecture requires relatively little effort, there is no real reason to overlook it.
However, it is important to note that solution architecture does not replace a project plan or detailed technical and functional documentation—it complements them by providing the high-level architectural foundation on which successful solutions are built.
💡 What’s your experience with solution architecture? Let’s discuss in the comments!
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