Enterprise Architects - where do they belong?

Setting up a solid enterprise architecture is pretty important if the company has more than a few of projects under implementation.

With a moving target like programming languages, virtual machine versions, database tools it is important to provide developer teams a solid guide of whats acceptable whats not..


The problem is where do we deploy e.a architects so that they are most efficient and useful?

This article debates that they should be a part of development team.

From my own experience a senior architect or an enterprise architect is best utilized in the proof-of-concept phase of a project. Some would call this period a spike, a phase in which elements of architecture is used in conjunction to minimize surprises later on..

Later as development progresses recurring jobs should be scheduled for architects so that they can monitor/audit the development progress regularly. (Say once a week)

This way an architect could shepherd two or three projects with ease and still can do research and paper work to document best practices and strategies. Besides cross-pollination between projects is very valuable, lessons learnt from one project can be applied to another..

I am not against forming a pool of architects with their own managers etc, just don't let them build their own ivory towers, keep them close to battle-front of development.

One last note, it is a dream come true if at least one senior developer in the team is on par with architects skills and experience..