A recent TechTarget article features an interview with Business Architecture expert William Ulrich (Take a business-driven approach to application modernization ). In that article Ulrich offers this advice:

"Moving from one technical architecture might be perfectly viable on a project by project basis, but when you're looking at the big picture and you want to really understand how to drive business value so that the business is pushing money into IT instead of IT pulling money back, you have to understand the business architecture. When we do that we're going to really be able to start bringing value to the table."

In many respects that big picture view is what software architecture is all about. As an architect, your technical skills must be top-notch. But if you don't apply that technical knowledge within the larger context of moving the business forward, what are you accomplishing?

If you're interested in more insight from William Ulrich, you can listen to the ArchBeat Podcast interview he did last year, in which he and co-author Neal McWhorter talked about their book, Business Architecture: The Art and Practice of Business Transformation.