Technical Solutions Architect in Scotland

There is a mandatory requirement for the Technical Solutions Architect to be involved in and consulted on all non-functional, architectural and design-led discussion and decision-making.

The Architect is responsible for:

• Ensuring that enterprise architecture models are developed in a consistent and coherent manner within the Projects and EPF Programme and ensure that effective and efficient reuse/reapplication of materials is done to assist wider coherence with the programme architecture wherever practical.
• Leading the architecture development assignments across Projects and the Programme, including identifying and promoting technical innovation to solve challenges faced by the business by working closely with the client (business and technical staff) and alongside staff from other suppliers.
• Working with the Head of Technology Transformation and Business Solutions Analyst to understand business requirements and technical project inter-dependencies in order to work with the Project Manager to resolve them and translate the business requirements into options papers, implementation assessments and solution designs adhering to the Enterprise Architecture, feeding into the EPF Programme.
• Advising on and participating in the governance arrangements set up to ensure that the architecture delivers the desired benefits to an organisation including defining and managing the process for the selection of new technologies ensuring removal of redundant technologies.
• Serving as a subject matter expert for technical delivery on projects within the scope of the EPF Programme and architectural frameworks, methods and tools.

This involves acting as a central hub on all technical designs for other technology teams, external stakeholders.

EARLY ENGAGEMENT PHASE

• Engagement must take place at the earliest opportunity within the project delivery.
• Contribution to Business Case preparation.
• Non-Functional Requirements document – consistent with Digital Division standard NFRs – standalone and also as input to ITT.
• Options Paper.

TENDER PHASE

• Architect responsible for NFRs requires to engage via Procurement in tender responses and information requests via procurement in respect of suppliers.
• Scoring of the ITT responses.
• Feedback responses collated by procurement.
• Individual scoring spreadsheets with detailed constructive analysis/criticism of responses providing reasoning behind scores which can be used to feed back to tenderer.

DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION PHASE

• Collaboration between supplier, project team & stakeholders.
• Production/Review of the following artefacts:

• Designs – High Level and Low Level Design Documents showing how and where within the Police Scotland environment the service will be hosted or how we connect to the solution (if cloud hosted, etc.).
• Options Paper – pros, cons, costs, effort, etc. (e.g. if there are multiple options where systems should be hosted).
• Other common diagrams produced/reviewed by the Technical Solutions Architect during the Design & Implementation stage include:

• High Level Context Diagram
• Integrations Diagram
• Deployment / Physical Design Diagram
• Traffic / Data Flow Diagrams
• Server Build request forms
• Task raised to support build requirements from the design
• Briefing Papers where technical considerations/changes need to be conveyed, raised and agreed with senior management and business stakeholders.

Technical Solutions Architects contribute to the following Project Deliverables:

• Failover/continuity documentation (Project Deliverable) – Aspects of this will be present in design documentation but greater detail will be required.
• Project Plan (Project Deliverable) - input into the steps required to build and deliver the documented design, any cutover/BRC/go-live activities, plus any decommissioning.
• High level presentations/overview of the solution, based on the requirements of the audience, such as the business or technical teams.