When a new client approaches me, I don't immediately start with technology selection. I start by:

• UEU GID VR - Understand Every User, Gather Important Details, Validate RoadMap

1. Understand the business - BBU

1. Business Problem: What business problem are we trying to solve?
2. Business Outcome: What is the expected business outcome?
3. Users & their Pain Points: Who are the users/stakeholders, and what are their main pain points?

2. Establish Communication - DCDE

4. Decision Makers: Who are the key decision-makers and who needs to be involved?
5. Communication: When and how frequently should we communicate?
6. Documentation: How will we document requirements, decisions, risks, and action items?
7. Escalations: How should issues, risks, and escalations be communicated?

3. Understand the current state - 3CSIP

8. Current State: What does the current architecture/solution look like?
9. Current Integrations: What applications, databases, integrations, and infrastructure are currently involved?
10. Current Pain Points: What are the biggest limitations or pain points with the current solution?

4. Gather Requirements - 4FUDPP

11. Functional and Non-Functional Requirements: What are the key Functional and Non-Functional Requirements?
12. Users & Data: What are the expected users, traffic, data volume, and growth?
13. Pillars-1: What availability, performance, scalability, and reliability are required?
14. Pillars-2: What security, compliance, and data-privacy requirements apply?

5. Identify Constraints - 5BEE

15. Budget & Timeline: What are the budget and timeline?
16. Existing Constraints-1: Are there existing technologies, platforms, vendors, or contracts we must retain?
17. Existing Constraints-2:Are there any technology, regulatory, data-residency, or organizational constraints?

6. Define Target Architecture - Questions for Solutions Architect - 6WSTP

18. What to do?: Should we build, buy, modernize, migrate, or integrate?
19. Different Solutions: What different architecture Solutions could satisfy the requirements and constraints?
20. Tradeoffs & Risks: What are the trade-offs, risks, and assumptions?
21. Pillars: How will the solution address security, scalability, availability, DR, and observability?

7. Validate with Client - 7MCA

22. Meet Requirement: Does the proposed architecture meet the business and technical requirements?
23. Remaining Concerns: Are there any remaining gaps, dependencies, or concerns?
24. Agreement: Do the key stakeholders agree with the solution and trade-offs?

8. Create RoadMap

25. Phased Implementation & Migration Strategy: What is the phased implementation and migration strategy?