Solution Architecture
A large IT company in Hinjewadi wants DabbaGo to feed 800 of its employees every weekday. Employees choose their meals, the company pays half, and DabbaGo sends one invoice a month. No single DabbaGo system can do this. The ordering app knows nothing about employers, there is no monthly billing, and the company's list of staff lives in its own HR system. Someone has to design how all of these pieces fit together.
The rule
One business problem, many systems: design the whole path.
A solution architect starts from a business need and designs everything required to meet it: the systems DabbaGo already has, systems it should build, systems it should buy, and outside systems it must connect to. Their responsibilities:
- Map requirements to systems. Which existing system handles each step, and where are the gaps?
- Build, buy or reuse. Should DabbaGo write monthly billing itself or use an existing invoicing product?
- Integration. How data moves between systems: APIs, file uploads, events, and who is the source of truth for each piece of data.
- Constraints. Deadline, budget, tax rules, the client's security demands, the skills of the teams.
- The delivery plan. What gets built first, and which risks to test early.
The solution architect works across teams. The ordering team owns its app, the finance team owns billing, the client owns its HR system. The solution architect owns the path between them.
The shortcut
Follow one business request from start to finish, writing down every system it touches and every handover between them. Gaps and risks appear at the handovers.
Who is allowed to order?
The client's HR system knows who is an employee. A nightly file or API call sends the staff list to DabbaGo. Handover 1: who owns the list, and how fresh must it be?
The trap is designing only the part you know best. A beautiful ordering-app change is worthless if the staff list arrives a day late and new employees cannot order on their first day.
Drills
Answer fast — trust the rule.
What does a solution architect start from?
In the office lunch plan, where are problems most likely to hide?
DabbaGo needs GST-correct monthly invoices in eight weeks and has no billing system. What is the solution architect weighing?
Which question matters most when the client's HR system sends DabbaGo its staff list?
Remember
- Solution architecture designs the whole path for one business problem across built, bought and outside systems.
- Shortcut: follow one request end to end and inspect every handover.
- Trap: polishing the part you know and ignoring the joins between systems.