The design before the build
Architecture
The design before the build — and the decision records that outlive the meeting.
Pressure-test the design before you pour three months and a new hire into building the wrong thing.
Independent system and software architecture: the target-state design, the trade-offs written down, and the decision records that survive the people who were in the room. We write the architecture; whether we build it is your call — the spec is written so it could go anywhere.
Who it's for
Teams about to spend real money building, or living with a system that has outgrown its shape. For when the design decision matters more than the keystrokes: a greenfield system worth getting right the first time, a platform straining at the seams, a build-vs-buy call finance is asking about, or an architecture someone independent needs to sign off. Frequently the paid, fixed-scope discovery phase of a larger build — the fee credited if you proceed.
How it fits
Architecture is the front of every other practice — it precedes a software build, sizes the infrastructure, and shapes an agent system — and it stands alone when the design is the thing you need.
What's included
- Target-state architecture: the components, the boundaries, the data and control flows, and the failure modes — at the altitude the decision needs, not a 200-page document no one reads.
- Architecture decision records (ADRs): each significant choice written down with the alternatives considered and why they lost, so the reasoning outlives the meeting.
- Technology selection in the open: build-vs-buy and vendor choices argued with the runner-up named, not a foregone conclusion dressed up as analysis.
- Reviews of systems that outgrew their shape: where the bottleneck actually is, what to change first, and what to leave alone.
- A spec written to be portable — you could take it to another builder — even though, in practice, we usually build it.
- Where it's true, the honest finding that the right move is to buy, to defer, or not to build at all.
What you provide
- Access to the people who hold the context — the constraints, the history, the things that already broke.
- The real requirements: budget, timeline, compliance, and the systems it must live alongside.
- Review and sign-off on the target-state design and the decision records.
Timeline shape
Weeks, not months — architecture is bounded work with a written deliverable at the end. If it proceeds to a build, the architecture fee is credited against the project; if it doesn't, the document is yours and worth having.