What questions should systems architects ask before creating anything

Working for AWS as a Solutions Architect has its perks. One of them being able to architect solutions for so many different types of customers. I worked with EdTech, FinTech, AdTech, “Sharing Tech”, and “Old Tech” :) companies, just to name a few. In each case the flow of the conversation (at least at the initial stages) is almost the same. Before I can propose a solution I need to understand the whys, whats, and hows, otherwise the solution isn’t actionable.

So I decided to write some of these questions down and share them with the world. This is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the actual amount of questions that are thrown around the room, but the questions shown here lead to other follow-up questions — these are conversation starters and any decent architecture session I’ve had with customers are usually structured around an open-forum conversation, rather than a Q&A.

Every conversation is different so make sure you adapt to the customer rather than adapt the customer to your questions/technical biases. Also, some of the answers are inferred with some of the customers, and explicitly asked with others. Flexibility is king here.

Understand the big picture…

Understand the technical and financial constraints…

Data Stack…

App Stack…

UI Stack…

Security…

Understand the operational/support capabilities…

Miscellaneous…

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