The architect role was given a place of honor as a 7th role in the Microsoft Solutions Framework (MSF) Team Model. Up until the last version of MSF 4.0, the architect role was encapsulated inside the program management and development roles.
This indicates a shift in thinking towards a world where architects are no longer just a side work of the program/development manager, but an integral role with responsibilities, training and goals that has to be taken into consideration.
The role exists as part of two MSF products incorporated in Visual Studio Team System: (1) MSF for Agile Development (2) MSF for CMMI.
Actually when digging into it, I found out that there are a few types of architects defeined including solution architect, infrastructure architect and even a user experience architect.
A new book called "Microsoft Solutions Framework Essentials" from MS Press is about to cover all of this.