The person in this role leads or coordinates the technical design of the system and has overall responsibility for facilitating the major technical decisions expressed as software architecture. This typically includes identifying and documenting the architecturally significant aspects of the system as views that describe requirements, design, implementation, and deployment.

This role is also responsible for providing the rationale for these decisions, balancing the concerns of the various stakeholders, reducing technical risks, and ensuring that decisions are effectively communicated, validated, and followed.

This role works closely with project managers in staffing and planning the project, because it is recommended that the team be organized around the architecture.

This role also works closely with analysts and developers to make sure that the architecturally significant requirements are assigned to the proper components of the system.