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AEGIS OS™

Guide

Architecture Assessment Checklist

What to gather before a diagnostic: systems, data, workflows, decision rights, constraints and desired outcomes.

Type
Guide
Topic
Assessment
Author
AEGIS OS™
Published
Updated

Key takeaways

  • Preparation determines how much of the assessment is spent discovering facts you already hold rather than designing the architecture.
  • Six categories cover it: systems, data, workflows, decision rights, constraints and outcomes.
  • Decision rights are the category organisations arrive least prepared for, and the one that shapes the design most.
  • An honest account of what does not work is worth more than a tidy diagram of what is supposed to happen.

1. Systems

  • Every system in active use, including the spreadsheets and shared documents people actually rely on.
  • Who owns each one internally and who administers it.
  • Which are contractual commitments and which could be replaced.
  • Where data currently moves between systems, and whether that movement is automatic or manual.

2. Data

  • The core entities the business runs on and where each currently lives.
  • Known conflicts — the same fact held differently in two places.
  • Definitions that teams disagree about, stated plainly.
  • History: how far back reliable records go and where the reliability breaks.

Worth saying out loud

Data condition moves scope further than any other variable. Describing it accurately shortens the assessment and produces a firmer quote.

3. Workflows

  • The three to five processes that carry the most value or the most frustration.
  • For each: trigger, steps, owners, handoffs, exception paths and end state.
  • Where the process leaves the systems and continues in email or messages.
  • The workarounds people have built, and what those workarounds are compensating for.

4. Decision rights

For each significant decision, four answers
 QuestionWhy it shapes the architecture
Who decides?Determines where approval boundaries sit
On what basis?Determines what must be visible at the point of decision
What happens if they are unavailable?Determines deputies and escalation
Is it reversible?Determines what may be executed within bounds

5. Constraints and 6. Outcomes

  • Regulatory, contractual, client-imposed or internal constraints on data handling and access.
  • Security and residency requirements, and who inside the organisation owns them.
  • Change constraints: seasonal peaks, system migrations already underway, capacity of the team.
  • The outcomes being pursued, stated as measurable operating changes rather than as technology goals.
  • The baseline for each outcome as it stands today, however rough.

An Architecture Assessment produces a blueprint, complexity and readiness analysis, an implementation roadmap and a quote. What it can produce depends materially on what walks in the door with you.

Sources and references

Preparation guidance for the AEGIS paid diagnostic. It describes inputs only and makes no claim about savings or return.

Start with an Architecture Assessment

An Architecture Assessment turns these questions into a documented blueprint, readiness analysis, implementation roadmap and quote for your organization.

Start with an Architecture AssessmentBook Architecture Call

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