Workbook
The Solutions Architect's Field Guide
Designing Systems for Problems That Haven't Been Fully Named Yet
The requirements keep changing because the problem has not been named.
For the solutions architect designing systems in environments where requirements are incomplete, politically contested, or technically underconstrained and the real problem has not been named yet.
The Name It First Experience
A perfectly designed system that solves the wrong problem is a well-executed failure. Your Solutions Architecture Charter makes your architecture philosophy explicit. This workbook examines your relationship to problem definition, builds discovery frameworks for underconstrained requirements, and produces a signed charter for every engagement.
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Sample questions
- What does designing systems for problems that haven't been fully named yet actually require of you?
- Where has the ambiguity of what the client actually needs been hardest to work with?
- What does architecture that solves the real problem — not just the stated one — look like?
Research basis
Rittel and Webber wicked problems applied to underdefined problem contexts / Simon sciences of the artificial applied to design as problem definition / Block flawless consulting applied to architect-client problem definition / Cruess professional identity formation adapted to technical advisory roles / TOGAF and Zachman frameworks as structural context
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The full guide on any screen, with a companion journal to write your answers by hand.
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Answer on screen. Your responses save as you go and assemble into your finished document.
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Listen to each question and speak your answer. We capture it. You never touch a keyboard.
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The Essential path takes you to your finished document by the questions that matter most. The Full-depth path walks every question, every scenario, every angle. Both produce the same signed document — one just goes deeper on the way there.
Essential path
Shorter sessions. The questions that go directly to the document.
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Every question. Every scenario, every angle.
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