RUP based processes and technical solution proposals

Hello :)

I decided today - since I have a little time - to write about the importance of following well defined and established processes when defining technical solutions for the clients.

Coincidentally, I have been involved recently in give back activities to the Architecture Profession within the company I work for.  In essence, it is a program where a selected group of people act as SME/Chief Architects for the participants (the assigned Solution Architects responsible for technical solution creation), guiding them through the process of delivering an architectural solution to a given client problem.  The purpose of the program is to help the participants gain real world experience through means of applying the theoretical knowledge they gained while following Architecture courses, thus acquiring the skill set required to successfully deliver architectural solutions on their own.

In short - since this kind of work takes place internally at my company therefore I won't give a lot of details - they need to do the selection of a delivery process from the RUP based framework we have in place, customize it based on the project conditions (and create work breakdown structure) , and then proceed to follow it by creating the artifacts that describe the solution.  All this effort would take place under our supervision as Chief Architects.

This exercise described above, reminded me of the importance of following these delivery processes while creating the technical solutions proposals for the clients.

For instance, we would need to organize ourselves and decide to follow the TSD delivery processes while working on the technical solution proposals; employ AD 2.0 for example while executing the projects, once the contract is secured; and do TDAs each step of the way (for technical solution proposal, as well as for the delivery part).

Of course, in order to be able to achieve all that we would need structural organizational changes to support these activities within our center, we would have to train architects, teach the method, employ technical solution managers.

But the flip side of all that is that we would gain the ability at an organizational level be able to respond to these kind of opportunities in a much coherent way, and therefore increase our changes as an organization to win new contracts - and equally important, deliver them successfully.