Types of IT Architects: A Content Analysis on Tasks and Skills

Information technology architecture is an essential element of an enterprise’s strategy and impacts competitive advantage. The management of information technology architectures is unexplored in theory and confused in practice. In particular, the roles of information technology architects are interpreted in various ways. The purpose of this study is to examine the roles of information technology architects by investigating the required activities and skills demanded in the human resources market. In-depth content analysis was applied on job advertisements. Categories were inductively developed by allocating meaning units until saturation: 2438 meaning units were assigned to 37 task categories and 49 skill categories. As a result, three types of architects with distinctive profiles were identified. In addition to technological expertise, all architects must provide outstanding social and methodological skills. Knowledge of particular frameworks is rarely required. Skills and architect types from The Open Group Architecture Framework were disproved in parts. Attributes specific to e-commerce architects and digital architects were elaborated. The found task and skill categories may be used as catalogs for recruiting purposes in practice.