Network Architecting is Not Network Engineering

Network architecting is not network engineering. Network architecture is not network design. The network architect must be the representative of the owner of the network. This is so even if the architect is the employee of the builder.

The architecture is presented as a set of documents, the so-called "architecture description" or "AD". But the architecture is not the documents.

IEEE 1471P-2000 is worth careful study. Here we see that the architect must know the stakeholders and their concerns. The AD needs to contain viewpoints and views that address the concerns of all such stakeholders. And, the architecture must contain models that are directly related to the views.

No matter how adept the engineer, this is not engineering. There is no pride of place in this. Architecture is just a different process than engineering, an art and one that demands a perspective that just cannot exist in engineering per se. A good network architect has to be adept in some aspects of engineering too. And, a good network engineer must, I think, also know quite a lot in the architectural realm.

Architects are not visionaries, even though they can be very deep in concept and be called "visionary". Certainly the SOA architecture is visionary but not the product of a visionary.

If you do not have an architect directing your projects, you are, I would suggest, either blessed with an engineer who in fact can do architecture or you are on the road to ruin.