I was having a conversation with a buddy of mine today, and we got on the subject of what the role of an architect really is (as we usually do). After some conversation (and good food), we came to the realization that the role of the architect, fundamentally, is to be the glue which binds the various business disciplines together. That is, the architect needs to know a little bit of something about marketing, sales, the actual business domain in which he is operating, infrastructure, development, and a whole host of others. The architect isn't an expert in all of them, and probably, none of them really, but he understands them at a deep enough level to be able to provide consistency and support across the breadth of them. He is the glue which holds them all together in order to deliver a functioning piece of technology after everything is said and done.