Technology skills are critical to convert the business drivers into technology implications and optimal solutions. Without these skills the Enterprise Architect would be lost!
The above two skills are the core of the profession. However, the one skill that ties them together and makes an Enterprise Architect effective is communications. EA entails a lot of abstract concepts and explanations. The audience usually does not understand these concepts and in a lot of cases has disdain for the activity. A good communicator can turn things around. A bad one can lose even with a brilliant EA.
The Achilles heel of enterprise architecture is that it is a staff function within a staff function! There are no direct bottom line connections; there are no direct end customer connections. Consequently, you are an internal consultant or an advisor at best. On the one hand, an enterprise architect is expected to elicit the correct answers from people who know and on the other advise them on doing their jobs better. Not having the authority to affect change you know is critical is like being asked to watch as the titanic is going down. The problem? Well, you are on board the ship, aren’t you?
Are any of these skills more important than the other? I am not sure the architect can survive without being competent in all of them. So in my book they are all equally important.
Are there other skills that are needed? The short answer is yes. Enterprise Architecture is a leadership role so leadership skills are required. But I am not sure if they are any different than those required for some other leadership role, say project management. Similarly, working the organization or political skills are critical to any key role and Enterprise architects are no different.
Now the 64 thousand dollar question: can these skills be learnt? Well, what do you think?
