Architecture profession

What we do and how we help

Architecture in DfE follows a profession-led model. Architects are embedded in service delivery teams, portfolios or domains and are supported by the architecture profession.

The architecture profession:

• builds architecture capability across DfE, providing a capability framework, supporting recruitment, career pathways and professional development opportunities
• sets architecture and technical design standards, providing guidance and a proportionate assurance framework
• builds architecture and technical design communities, facilitating regular meet-ups with opportunities for all to share and learn

There is a large community of permanent, managed service and contingent architects across the department, plus commercial frameworks to help fulfill your needs.

If you’re looking for architecture support for your project, you should discuss your needs with your architecture lead in the first instance.

Help to find an architect

The architecture profession will work with you and your architecture lead to fulfill your needs. That could be supporting you to recruit permanent staff or helping you bring in the right people or services, through one of our compliant commercial routes to market. This will enable you to:

• get the right architecture skills, at the right time, at the right price
• on-board architects into DfE consistently, so they understand our ways of working and assurance framework
• provide oversight and assurance of their outputs and deliverables
• link them into the wider DfE architecture profession and communities
• exit them professionally when their work is complete, with appropriate handover and knowledge transfer

The profession can provide example job descriptions, structured recruitment materials and template statements of work (for managed services and contingent workers).

If you’d like to know more, or discuss your needs in more detail, contact the architecture profession.

Architecture leads

Architecture leads work within a DfE portfolio or domain. They work closely with DDT business partners and other DDT specialists to support, steer and help join-up delivery.

They:

• assist, advise and guide programmes and projects, ensuring alignment with:
  • technical strategies
  • common patterns and components
  • architecture principles
  • architecture standards and assurance
• can help identify architects and other technical specialists needed to support delivery, specifically:
  • supporting recruitment of the right people to meet the needs of the portfolio / domain
  • working with delivery teams to align with architecture principles, standards and patterns
  • helping identify common goals / problems being solved across DfE and linking up

Use the table below to find out who your architecture lead is. Or contact the architecture profession if you’re not sure.

Help with assurance

For most services, it is expected that architecture will emerge and evolve over time as services themselves change based on emerging user needs and other drivers.

The benefit of iterative delivery is to release value to users as early as possible, then iterate and continuously improve to derive better outcomes based on user feedback. This requires ongoing, continuous architecture and technical design review, to ensure services are created sustainably and consistently across the portfolio or domain and the wider organisation. Embedded architects work alongside product managers, developers, service designers and many other people to achieve this.

In DfE, we encourage an ‘in-line’ assurance approach, where decisions about architecture and technology are made within a portfolio or service team based on user need, with assurance from wider technical communities where needed. By aligning with architecture principles and complying with technical standards in DfE, we believe minimum-viable governance speeds up delivery. Architects can share and assure their work in communities, ensuring fit with broader organisational strategies.

To see how your needs for architecture and technical design assurance might be best met, see our design assurance guidance

Further information

More information on architecture roles and responsibilities is available on our architecture capability framework guidance.

For any other information on the architecture practice, contact the architecture profession.