Architecture review workflow
The review is a bounded sequence from one production question to one defensible decision. Each stage has a purpose, an input, and an observable output.
Frame · Intake · Reconstruct
Select trajectories · Test hypotheses
Findings · Actions · Decision
Frame the decision
Name the system, workflow, lifecycle stage, operating conditions, consequential actions, decision owner, and exclusions.
Intake the evidence
Inventory existing architecture views, contracts, configurations, traces, evals, deployment material, and recovery procedures. Record versions, environments, dates, and gaps.
Reconstruct the as-built system
Compare what the team says exists with what artifacts and runtime evidence demonstrate. Map purpose, authority, agent nodes, tools, state, memory, data, boundaries, controls, operations, and ownership.
Select critical trajectories
Choose a representative success path and the paths that carry production risk: consequential action, degraded dependency, interruption/recovery, unauthorized request, or real failure.
Test the highest-risk hypotheses
At each seam, ask what can be wrong, stale, malicious, duplicated, ambiguous, outside authority, undetected, or unrecoverable. Run only approved, bounded probes that can change the conclusion.
Write atomic findings
Describe each demonstrated failure as condition → trigger → failure → consequence → control gap, with severity, confidence, affected boundary, evidence, and detection/recovery implications.
Sequence remediation
Define the required capability, containment or structural change, owner, horizon, release, dependencies, acceptance evidence, and residual risk. Do not stop at “add guardrails.”
Decide and hand off
Record proceed, proceed with conditions, do not proceed/expand, or insufficient evidence. Include blockers, accepted residual risks, expiry, next review trigger, and accountable owner.
Where the workbooks fit
- As-Built Architecture workbook: primarily stages 02–03. It records the implemented system and its evidence status.
- Deep-Dive Review workbook: primarily stages 04–08. It records trajectories, hypotheses, findings, actions, and decisions.
- Structured review record: remains the authoritative source from which the written assessment and client readout are produced.