Without really looking for them and just keeping my eyes open, I've found a few articles that have helped me to put together my definition of a software architect.

Martin Fowler is a writer and speaker who often makes a lot of sense to me. I've saved his article "Who Needs an Architect?", because in it I identify with the species of architect that I strive to belong to: "Architectus Oryzus".

While Fowler's piece seemed more practical, I found an article by Rich Newcomb titled "Architect of the Enterprise" that contained an interesting list of characteristics of an enterprise architect.

I kept an adequate background piece by Walter Hurst titled "The Critical Role of Application Architecture" because it seemed to cover a lot of ground. It begins with a good start to a list of issues that architecture might be able to address. The piece goes on to describe the role of architecture, approaches for developing an architecture, issues likely to be encountered, and why some companies buy architectures.

I had the next article for some time. It relies heavily on the constructing-a-building analogy. It is by Marc Sewell and is titled "Are You a Software Architect?"

While not specifically focused on architecture, Wayne Eckerson wrote a good column that compares and contrast leaders with managers. I believe that an effective architect needs to also be a leader.