Chapter 1:Data Architect Roles and Responsibilities

In this chapter, we will first define the term architecture in order to establish a baseline understanding of what the term means. This will help us to establish what it is, bring other stakeholders on the same page, and prevent scope creep in roles and responsibilities. We will then look at the types of architects, their roles, and why it's important for them to work together in order to both produce a cohesive architectural strategy and to deliver value to an enterprise. Often, people may mention needing a solution architect, but in reality, the work they need to do may be more suitable for a data architect because the skill set required is different. So, understanding the different types of architects is important.

In this chapter, we will also look at the responsibilities of a data architect and the soft and hard skills needed to be successful in the role. Covering these topics will help you to communicate with architects more effectively in order to engage the right resources for your project. Understanding this from the beginning will help you to see the overlap that sometimes exists between the skills that data architects and solution architects have and understand when a task may require the skills of one role more than the other.

We will conclude the chapter by discussing a typical day in the life of a data architect, which will allow us to understand the work they do and the potential challenges they face.

In particular, we will cover these topics:

• Defining architecture
• Exploring architecture roles
• Why is data architecture important?
• Data architect responsibilities
• Data architect skills
• A day in the life of a data architect