To eliminate organizational friction and decision deadlocks, OCF enforces strict boundary separation among the System Cluster leadership triad:
- The Cluster Manager controls who does the work, how much capacity is funded, and how operational roadblocks are removed. They do not dictate architectural patterns or override user story backlog rankings.
- The Solution Architect controls how systems are designed, what software technologies are used, and how data flows between components. They do not manage HR processes, performance reviews, or feature priorities.
- The Product Owner controls what business capabilities are prioritized and when features are accepted. They report hierarchically to the Cluster Manager but retain complete, uncompromised ownership over product value prioritization.
In case that your organisation has chosen not to scale the Open Circular Framework, then it will be the enterprise architect who will fulfill the role of the solution architect.