A technology architect should be technical and be able to keep himself on top of new developments in his area (software, networks, storage, etc) as well as havi

A technology architect should be technical and be able to keep himself on top of new developments in his area (software, networks, storage, etc) as well as having a good solid understanding of the adjacent or related areas. The focus is how newer and greater things fit together into the big picture. A solutions architect looks over the fitness for purpose and is accountable for the delivery at project level which means that he might have to make decisions (together with his stakeholders) about which technology, framework or methodology to be employed in order to ensure the deliverables are mapped to the requirements with minimal or no slippage. The focus is business benefits from technology. An enterprise architect is a whole different beast and I'm not even going to go there at this stage. I'll just say that being technical is as useful as being tall in that it makes for a good first impression but does not correlate to quality or effectiveness overall. I am of the opinion that everyone involved in IT should have a good understanding of the past, present and future of technology as well as a systems thinking capability that allows one to understand how different systems interact and react to his own area of expertise. The balance of knowing how to do it and why do we do it is the difference between slave labor and expert work.