Understanding the solution architect’s role

The Power Platform solution architect’s role is to harness their technical knowledge and functional expertise to chart a path for the implementation team, navigating risks, issues, and changes to make the implementation a success. The solution architect is in constant dialog with the project stakeholders, project managers, and development and implementation team members to ensure the project’s vision is achieved.

The following diagram illustrates the key activities a solution architect engages in on a typical Power Platform implementation:

Figure 1.2 – The solution architect’s role

Managing expectations and project scope

A solution architect is responsible for ensuring project requirements are actioned. When requirements inevitably change throughout a project, the solution architect manages the change in scope, assesses the risk and impact these changes would bring to the build, and sets the right expectations regarding timescales for implementation. When scope creep occurs, the solution architect reviews the change, breaks down the new requirements into tasks, and communicates an action plan to the project managers, stakeholders, and the development team, thus preventing unexpected impacts on the project budget and implementation timeline.

Managing expectations and project scope is one of the key activities performed by a Power Platform solution architect and ensures that nothing is over-promised or under-delivered. The chapters that follow provide practical examples for successfully managing project scope and customer expectations.

Defining standards and implementation guidelines

As a solution architect, you will be responsible for defining the development and implementation standards that will help Power Platform consultants and developers build high-quality supportable solutions. Development standards define the technical approach, conventions, and controls expected from the implementation team, and provide a template for the Power Platform solution.

Defining clear implementation standards helps boost the build teams’ output capacity by providing a foundation for the customization of each aspect of the Power Platform, from table and column-naming conventions to advanced integration patterns, peer reviews, and coding standards. In the chapters that follow, you will learn how to define implementation standards that bring new team members up to speed faster and propel your implementation.

Breaking down work into implementable tasks

Organizational requirements are captured in the early stages of a Power Platform project and throughout the various phases of implementation. For these requirements to be implemented in harmony with the overall solution, they are broken down into tasks that the various implementation team members can perform.

Through the use of task management and sprint planning tools, such as Azure DevOps, solution architects analyze these requirements and related user stories, design a blueprint for the implementation, and create tasks that are later assigned to the implementation team members. Having an awareness of the various technical skillsets that make up a Power Platform implementation team, tasks are created to address each aspect of the organizational requirement.

In the chapters that follow, you will work through sample scenarios, and learn how to divide implementation work into discrete pieces of work to match the technical and functional skillsets of a build team.

Leading by example

Having defined the project development standards and designed a blueprint for the Power Platform solution to be implemented, solution architects proceed to lay the foundations for the implementation, helping team members build the solution from the ground up. Junior team members requiring additional attention during the early stages of the project are guided by the solution architect, providing a cushion to handle development issues, and making sure the project timescales are achieved by boosting the overall output for the team.

Helping people reach the same conclusion

During the various phases of a Power Platform project, team members will have varying opinions on the best course of action when implementing customer requirements. The solution architect listens to the options proposed by team members, project managers, and stakeholders, to ascertain the value contribution to the project. It is the solution architect’s job to convey the best solution for the various problems and tasks that come up during the implementation.

Achieving harmony and the cooperation of the implementation team is achieved by creating an environment in which discussions can take place, weighing up the pros and cons, and clearly explaining why the solution blueprint put forth is the best way forward to achieve the current and future organizational requirements. Solution architects do not assume all team members have the same level of technical expertise. They aim to raise the team’s awareness of the benefits the solution design brings to the implementation by highlighting use cases where specific implementation strategies have been successful in the past.

In the coming chapters, you will work through several scenarios where these negotiating skills will come into play, helping the project become a success.

Giving good news and bad news

Everyone enjoys giving people good news. There will be times during the implementation of business applications and portals when unexpected complications arise. This may be in the shape of new technical constraints, changes to the licensing model resulting in additional costs, or the deprecation of product features. A solution architect is responsible for the timely management of these issues, researching solutions to mitigate risks, and communicating the best course of action to the customer or project stakeholders.

In the chapters that follow, you will work through a sample implementation scenario that requires just this type of intervention to ensure the successful completion of a Power Platform project.

This section described the general activities and responsibilities solution architects take on during a typical Power Platform implementation. In this book, you will work through these activities to help cement their understanding for application in future projects.