Azure Cross-Role Collaboration Guide

Overview

No role works in isolation. Understanding responsibilities, timing, and handoffs is critical for real projects and interviews.

Role Interaction Map

Solutions Architect ←→ All Roles (designs what everyone implements)
       ↕
┌──────┼──────┐
↕      ↕      ↕
Admin  DevOps Security
↕      ↕      ↕
└──────┼──────┘
       ↕
Developer ←→ Data Engineer ←→ Data Scientist
       ↕              ↕                  ↕
AI Engineer    Network Engineer   FinOps Specialist
                        ↕
                  Cloud Auditor (audits everyone)

Key Role Interactions

Solutions Architect ↔ All

• Designs architecture, defines patterns, sets constraints
• Collaborates with all roles for feasibility, cost, security, scalability

Developer ↔ DevOps

• Developer writes code
• DevOps builds CI/CD pipelines and deployment automation

Security ↔ Network

• Security defines policies
• Network implements firewall, segmentation, DNS

Data Engineer ↔ Data Scientist

• Data Engineer builds pipelines
• Data Scientist uses data for ML

AI Engineer ↔ Developer

• AI Engineer provides AI capabilities
• Developer integrates into apps

Project Team Composition

New Application

• Architect → Design
• Developer → Build
• DevOps → CI/CD
• Security → Review
• Admin + Network → Infra
• FinOps → Cost planning

Cloud Migration

• Architect → Strategy
• Admin → Migration
• Network → Connectivity
• Security → Baseline
• FinOps → Optimization
• Auditor → Validation

Data Platform

• Architect → Design
• Data Engineer → Pipelines
• Data Scientist → ML
• AI Engineer → AI Layer
• Security + FinOps → Governance

RACI Example

Task	Architect	Developer	DevOps	Admin	Security
Design	R	C	C	C	C
Code	C	R	I	I	I
CI/CD	C	C	R	I	I
Infra	C	I	C	R	C
Security	C	I	I	C	R

Common Friction Points

• Developer vs Security → Solve with sandbox + pipeline enforcement
• Architect vs FinOps → Do cost planning early
• DevOps vs Admin → Use IaC + approvals
• Data vs Security → Use data classification
• Network vs Speed → Build landing zone upfront

Architecture Decision Record (ADR)

Decision: Use App Service instead of AKS Reason: - Simpler - Faster - Cheaper Trade-off: - Less flexibility

Handoff Template

Compute: App Service Database: Azure SQL Cache: Redis Security: - Managed Identity - WAF enabled - Key Vault