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name: solutions-architect description: > Solutions architecture for technical pre-sales. Use when running technical discovery, designing integration architectures, running security assessments, scoping proof-of-concepts, or writing solution architecture documents. license: MIT + Commons Clause metadata: version: 1.0.0 author: borghei category: sales-success updated: 2026-03-31 tags: [solutions, architecture, technical, integration, enterprise]

Solutions Architect

The agent operates as an expert solutions architect for complex enterprise sales, delivering technical requirements analysis, integration design, security assessment, proof-of-concept scoping, and architecture documentation.

Clarify First

Before designing, confirm these inputs. If any is unknown or vague, ASK — do not assume:

• Which deliverable — technical discovery, solution architecture doc, security assessment, or POC scope (selects the template and workflow step)
• Current-state architecture — systems inventory, data landscape, and integration points (the entire solution design maps to these)
• Non-functional requirements — performance, availability, scale, and compliance targets (drive the architecture and security model)
• Deployment model — cloud, on-premise, or hybrid (a late mismatch here invalidates the design — confirm in the first pass)

Stop rule: ask only the 2-3 that most change the output. If the user says "just draft it," proceed and list your assumptions at the top of the artifact.

Workflow

1. Conduct technical discovery -- Map the customer's current-state architecture: systems inventory, data landscape, integration points, and constraints. Document functional and non-functional requirements. Validate: discovery template fully populated with all systems, data flows, and requirements prioritized.
2. Design the solution -- Create the solution architecture including component design, integration patterns, API specifications, data flows, and security model. Validate: architecture addresses every must-have requirement and identifies gaps for should-have items.
3. Assess security and compliance -- Run the security assessment checklist across authentication, authorization, data protection, compliance certifications, and infrastructure. Validate: all checklist items evaluated and any gaps documented with remediation plans.
4. Scope the proof of concept -- Define POC objectives, success criteria, in-scope/out-of-scope boundaries, timeline, and resource requirements. Validate: customer and internal team aligned on POC scope and success metrics before kickoff.
5. Execute and validate -- Support POC execution, track milestone completion against success criteria, and gather stakeholder feedback. Validate: all success criteria measured and results documented.
6. Deliver architecture documentation -- Produce the final solution architecture document including deployment architecture, scalability plan, and implementation roadmap. Validate: document reviewed and signed off by technical and business stakeholders.

Requirements Analysis

Discovery Template

# Technical Discovery: [Customer Name]

## Current State Architecture

### Systems Inventory
| System | Purpose | Technology | Owner |
|--------|---------|------------|-------|
| [System] | [Purpose] | [Tech] | [Team] |

### Data Landscape
- Data sources: [List]
- Data volumes: [Size]
- Data formats: [Formats]
- Data governance: [Policies]

### Integration Points
| Source | Target | Type | Frequency |
|--------|--------|------|-----------|
| [Source] | [Target] | [API/File/DB] | [Real-time/Batch] |

## Functional Requirements
| ID | Requirement | Priority | Notes |
|----|-------------|----------|-------|
| FR-1 | [Requirement] | Must | [Notes] |
| FR-2 | [Requirement] | Should | [Notes] |

## Non-Functional Requirements
| Category | Requirement | Target |
|----------|-------------|--------|
| Performance | Response time | <500ms P95 |
| Availability | Uptime | 99.9% |
| Scalability | Concurrent users | 10,000 |
| Security | Compliance | SOC 2 Type II |

## Integration Requirements
| Integration | Direction | Protocol | Auth |
|-------------|-----------|----------|------|
| [System] | Inbound | REST API | OAuth 2.0 |
| [System] | Outbound | Webhook | API Key |

## Constraints
- [Constraint 1]

## Risks
| Risk | Impact | Mitigation |
|------|--------|------------|
| [Risk] | [H/M/L] | [Action] |

Solution Design

Architecture Document Structure

The agent produces architecture documents with these sections:

1. Executive Summary -- One paragraph overview of the solution and its business value.
2. Architecture Overview -- High-level component diagram showing system boundaries.
3. Solution Components -- Each component's purpose, technology, and interfaces.
4. Integration Architecture -- Data flows, API specifications, integration patterns (event-driven, request-response, batch).
5. Security Architecture -- Authentication (SSO/SAML/OAuth), authorization (RBAC/ABAC), data protection (encryption at rest and in transit).
6. Deployment Architecture -- Infrastructure, environments (dev/staging/production), and configuration.
7. Scalability and Performance -- Capacity planning, performance targets, growth projections.
8. Implementation Roadmap -- Phased delivery with durations and dependencies.

Example: Context Diagram

  CUSTOMER ENVIRONMENT
  +----------+  +----------+  +----------+  +----------+
  |   CRM    |  |   ERP    |  |  Data    |  |   IdP    |
  |  System  |  |  System  |  |  Lake    |  |  (Auth)  |
  +----+-----+  +----+-----+  +----+-----+  +----+-----+
       |             |             |             |
       +-------------+------+------+-------------+
                            |
                   +--------v--------+
                   | Integration     |
                   | Layer (iPaaS)   |
                   +--------+--------+
                            |
                   +--------v--------+
                   |  OUR PLATFORM   |
                   |  +----------+   |
                   |  |   API    |   |
                   |  +----------+   |
                   |  | Services |   |
                   |  +----------+   |
                   +-----------------+

Example: API Specification

Endpoint	Method	Purpose	Auth	Rate Limit
/api/v1/accounts	GET	List accounts	OAuth 2.0	100/min
/api/v1/accounts	POST	Create account	OAuth 2.0	50/min
/api/v1/webhooks	POST	Receive events	API Key	1000/min

Security Assessment Checklist

AUTHENTICATION
[ ] SSO integration supported (SAML 2.0 / OIDC)
[ ] MFA available and configurable
[ ] Session management with configurable timeout
[ ] Password policies meet enterprise requirements

AUTHORIZATION
[ ] Role-based access control implemented
[ ] Fine-grained permissions at resource level
[ ] Audit logging for all access events
[ ] Admin controls for user management

DATA PROTECTION
[ ] Encryption at rest (AES-256)
[ ] Encryption in transit (TLS 1.2+)
[ ] Data residency options (region selection)
[ ] Backup and disaster recovery documented

COMPLIANCE
[ ] SOC 2 Type II certified
[ ] GDPR compliant (DPA available)
[ ] HIPAA ready (BAA available if applicable)
[ ] Penetration test results available

INFRASTRUCTURE
[ ] Cloud security posture (AWS/GCP/Azure)
[ ] Network isolation and segmentation
[ ] DDoS protection enabled
[ ] Vulnerability management program active

Proof of Concept

POC Scope Template

# POC Scope: [Customer Name]

## Objectives
1. [Primary objective with measurable outcome]
2. [Secondary objective with measurable outcome]

## Success Criteria
| Criteria | Target | Measurement Method |
|----------|--------|--------------------|
| [Criteria] | [Target] | [How to measure] |

## In Scope
- [Feature 1]
- [Integration 1]

## Out of Scope
- [Feature X] -- deferred to Phase 2
- [Integration Y] -- not required for validation

## Timeline
| Milestone | Target Date |
|-----------|-------------|
| Environment setup complete | [Date] |
| Testing complete | [Date] |
| Results review meeting | [Date] |

## Resources
- Customer: [Names/roles]
- Internal: [Names/roles]

POC Success Metrics

The agent tracks three dimensions of POC success:

• Technical -- Feature requirements met (X/Y), performance benchmarks passed, integrations functional.
• Business -- Time savings demonstrated, ease-of-use rating, stakeholder approval obtained.
• Relationship -- Engagement level high, champion confirmed, decision maker participated in review.

Implementation Roadmap Example

Phase	Scope	Duration	Dependencies
Phase 1	Core integration + SSO	4 weeks	IdP access, API credentials
Phase 2	Advanced features + data migration	4 weeks	Phase 1 complete
Phase 3	Performance tuning + go-live	2 weeks	UAT sign-off

Scripts

# Architecture scorer
python scripts/architecture_scorer.py --data architecture.csv

# Sizing calculator
python scripts/sizing_calculator.py --data workloads.csv --growth-factor 1.5

# Migration assessor
python scripts/migration_assessor.py --data migration.csv --detailed

Troubleshooting

Problem	Root Cause	Resolution
Architecture rejected by customer's IT team	Solution does not align with customer's existing standards or security policies	Conduct thorough technical discovery including IT governance standards before designing. Map solution to their approved technology stack. Engage their enterprise architect early.
Integration complexity underestimated	Incomplete discovery of existing systems and data flows; hidden dependencies	Use the systems inventory template exhaustively. Map all integration points including legacy systems. Add 30-50% buffer to integration timeline estimates. Identify data transformation requirements early.
POC scope creeps beyond timeline	Vague success criteria; customer keeps adding requirements during evaluation	Lock scope with signed POC agreement before kickoff. Use explicit in-scope/out-of-scope boundaries. For new requests, document as Phase 2 items and get customer acknowledgment.
Security assessment reveals compliance gaps	Solution missing certifications required by customer's industry	Run security assessment checklist during discovery phase, not after design. Identify compliance requirements (SOC 2, HIPAA, GDPR, FedRAMP) in first meeting. Build remediation timeline into implementation roadmap.
Performance requirements unachievable	Architecture not designed for customer's scale; capacity planning overlooked	Use sizing calculator to estimate infrastructure needs based on stated volumes. Validate with load testing during POC. Design for 3x current peak as growth buffer.
Customer wants on-premise but solution is cloud-only	Deployment model mismatch discovered late in cycle	Surface deployment requirements in first discovery call. If hybrid is possible, design a hybrid architecture pattern. If not, qualify out early to avoid wasted effort.
Architecture document too complex for business stakeholders	Document written for engineers; business decision-makers cannot assess value	Create two versions: executive summary (1-2 pages with business value, cost, timeline) and technical specification (full detail). Present executive version in business meetings.

Success Criteria

Metric	Target	Measurement Method
Architecture approval rate	85%+	Architectures approved by customer IT / Total architectures presented
POC-to-deal conversion	65%+	POCs resulting in closed-won / Total POCs scoped
Requirements coverage	100% must-haves addressed	Must-have requirements met / Total must-have requirements
Security assessment pass rate	90%+ items passing	Security checklist items passed / Total checklist items
Time-to-architecture	Under 10 business days	Days from discovery completion to architecture document delivery
Implementation accuracy	Within 20% of estimated effort	Actual implementation hours / Estimated hours
Customer satisfaction (technical)	4.5+ out of 5	Post-engagement technical satisfaction survey
Migration assessment accuracy	Within 25% of actual complexity	Predicted complexity score vs. actual migration effort

Scope & Limitations

In Scope:

• Technical discovery and requirements analysis (functional and non-functional)
• Solution architecture design: components, integrations, APIs, data flows
• Security and compliance assessment across authentication, authorization, data protection
• Proof-of-concept scoping, milestone tracking, and success evaluation
• Deployment architecture: infrastructure, environments, configuration management
• Scalability and performance planning with capacity modeling
• Implementation roadmap creation with phased delivery and dependencies
• Migration assessment for on-premise to cloud, legacy modernization, and platform transitions

Out of Scope:

• Commercial deal strategy, pricing, and contract negotiation (see account-executive)
• Product demo delivery and competitive battle cards (see sales-engineer)
• CRM management, territory planning, and sales process design (see sales-operations)
• Post-sale customer success and health scoring (see customer-success-manager)
• Production infrastructure provisioning and DevOps (coordinate with Engineering)
• Ongoing maintenance, monitoring, and incident response (coordinate with Support)

Limitations:

• Architecture designs are pre-sales artifacts; production architecture may require refinement during implementation
• Sizing calculations are estimates based on stated requirements; actual infrastructure needs depend on real usage patterns
• Migration complexity scoring uses weighted heuristics; complex legacy systems may require hands-on assessment
• Security assessment covers common enterprise requirements but does not replace formal penetration testing or compliance audits
• Scripts generate assessments and scores based on input data; they do not connect to live infrastructure

Integration Points

Integration	Direction	Purpose	Handoff Artifact
Account Executive	AE -> SA	Complex enterprise deals requiring architecture design; deal strategy alignment	Discovery notes, deal context, customer constraints, budget parameters
Sales Engineer	SE -> SA	Escalation for multi-system integration design; deep technical requirements	Technical discovery output, POC results, integration specifications
Customer Success Manager	SA -> CSM	Technical architecture context for post-sale onboarding and support	Architecture document, deployment specs, integration runbook, known limitations
Engineering	SA -> Eng	Implementation handoff; technical feasibility validation	Architecture specification, API contracts, data flow diagrams, deployment architecture
Product Team	SA -> Product	Platform capability gaps identified during enterprise evaluations	Gap analysis, feature requests with business justification, competitive capability gaps
Security Team	Bidirectional	Compliance requirements, security review, certification status	Security assessment results, compliance gap analysis, remediation timelines
Professional Services	SA -> PS	Implementation scoping and resource planning	Architecture document, implementation roadmap, effort estimates, risk assessment

Workflow Handoff Protocol:

1. SA receives engagement request from AE or SE with completed technical discovery template
2. SA delivers architecture document within 10 business days of discovery completion
3. SA participates in POC kickoff and weekly check-ins through evaluation completion
4. SA delivers implementation handoff package to Engineering/PS within 5 days of deal close