Software & AI architecture services
Architect.Define and design the response.
We define the software or AI solution, integration or transition your delivery team needs. You get the agreed designs, justified choices and a usable handoff, grounded in your business and operating constraints.
Typical decisions
Choose the response. Give the team an architecture to deliver.
- A software or AI-enabled capability needs a coherent design within your existing landscape.
- You have chosen to harden, refactor, re-architect or replace, and the team needs the target design and transition.
- An existing product needs a production target and an implementation handoff.
- AI workflows, legacy systems and new capabilities need clear data, integration and operating boundaries.
What you receive
The result and the deliverables.
A coherent architecture direction, selected designs and transition that your delivery team can use for planning and implementation.
- A chosen architecture direction with alternatives, trade-offs and decision rationale.
- The agreed component, data, integration, AI-workflow and operational designs, with explicit boundaries and assumptions.
- Transition stages, dependencies and an implementation handoff appropriate to the agreed depth.
Relevant scopes
Go deeper into the scope that fits.
Architecture design
Solution & Transition Architecture
Design the software or AI-enabled solution, how it fits your existing systems and the transition plan. You receive the agreed designs, the reasons for each choice and an implementation handoff.
Explore the scopeModernisation decision
Modernisation Assessment
We compare hardening, refactoring, re-architecture, replacement and stopping against the constraints of your product or estate, and recommend one path.
Explore the scopeMore within Architect
Production & Transition Architecture
The production target, component boundaries and transition sequence for a product that needs to mature without losing what already works.
Legacy-to-AI Integration Architecture
A bridge between AI work and existing systems, data and operating constraints.
Modernisation Options Session
A lighter discussion of options, based on your documents.
How it works
A contribution with clear accountability.
Establish the baseline
Confirm the outcomes, constraints and evidence needed for the design. Adequate discovery can come from your team or another provider.
Compare and design
Test credible software or AI design options and define the response, trade-offs, interfaces and operating qualities that matter.
Prepare the transition
Make dependencies, sequencing, open decisions and implementation responsibilities explicit.
Example · Architect
An API between the portal and the order system
The target design sets how a new customer portal connects to the order system. It compares the options, gives the reasons and conditions, and sets out what engineering builds.
Inspect the Architect example
- Options
- Three ways to connect the portal: a nightly copy of the order data, the integration platform you already use, or an API on the order system itself.
- Chosen design
- An API on the order system with four calls: customer details, order status, order history and new orders. Each call returns only the signed-in customer's data.
- Reasons / conditions
- A nightly copy would show yesterday's order status; the integration platform adds licence cost and another team for four calls. Condition: your order-system team owns and versions the API, so changes are announced before they reach the portal.
- Handoff / limit
- We hand over the API contract, the access rules and the sequence for moving each portal page to the API. Engineering estimates, builds and tests. The nightly reports stay outside this design until they are examined.
Choosing the contribution
Diagnosis establishes the problem. Architecture defines the response.
Assess finds out what's there and recommends a path, for example through a Modernisation Assessment. Architect designs the chosen path and plans the transition.
Practical questions
Before engaging us for Architect.
Do we have to buy a Sparkling assessment first?
No. A sufficient, relevant baseline can come from your team or another provider. Missing evidence is identified before the design scope is agreed.
Do you implement the design?
Client and partner teams implement, test and operate. Sparkling owns the agreed architecture work and can provide governance under a separate agreement.
Does every architecture scope include a full blueprint?
No. A path recommendation, an integration design and a full production blueprint have different outputs. The statement of work selects the artefact set and depth.
What's the decision in front of you?
Tell us the situation and what you intend to commit to. 25 minutes on Teams, no preparation needed. We will agree the right scope and depth, or tell you if this is not the right service.