Reference Architectures
Pre-approved templates for recurring solution shapes.
4 to work through
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intermediate
An enterprise publishes reference architectures that teams do not follow. What makes a reference architecture get used?
2 min answer -
intermediate
An organisation publishes reference architectures that teams do not follow. What is the failure, and what would work?
2 min answer -
intermediate
Three teams followed the published reference architecture exactly. All three produced the same defect - unbounded retry behaviour against a shared dependency - and two of them caused incidents. The reference architecture is not being ignored. Diagnose.
3 min answer -
intermediate
You published a reference architecture. Teams are not following it. What is likely wrong?
2 min answer
4 terms in this topic
Behavioural Specification Gap
The omission in a reference architecture that specifies components and call directions but not behaviour under failure - so every team that complies …
patternExecutable Reference Architecture
A template that generates a working, compliant, observable, deployable service - replacing a reference document with something teams adopt because it…
conceptReference Architecture
A pre-decided template for a recurring class of solution, capturing the decisions that do not need making again.
practiceReference Implementation
A working example of a reference architecture that teams can run, read and copy, as opposed to a document describing one.
Neighbouring topics
Enterprise Architecture
General material on architecture at portfolio and estate scale.
EA Domains
Business, application, data and technology architecture as viewpoints.
Application Architecture
The application estate as a designed portfolio rather than an accumulation.
Technology Architecture
Platforms, runtimes and infrastructure standards across the estate.
Capability Maps in EA
The stable frame for hanging investment, ownership and health off.
Application Portfolio Management
Inventory, ownership, cost and health for every application.
Application Rationalisation
Retire, consolidate, replatform — and why retirement is under-applied.
Technology Standards
Guidance that teams follow because it helps, not because it is mandated.
Technology Radar
Adopt, trial, assess and hold — with movement, dates and owners.
Architecture Governance
Preventive, automated controls rather than review meetings.
Architecture Review Boards
Thresholds, early engagement and a real route to accept deviation.
Enterprise Integration
Estate-wide integration strategy, standards and shared infrastructure.
TOGAF
The ADM as a checklist, tailored rather than followed literally.
EA Frameworks
Zachman, FEAF and others — vocabulary rather than method.
Architecture Roadmaps
Sequencing change across an estate with dependencies and funding.
Paved Roads
Making the supported path the easiest path, with a way to leave it.
Platform Teams
Reducing other teams' cognitive load, measured by adoption.
InnerSource
Open-source collaboration practices applied inside an organisation.
EA Metrics
Measuring whether architecture work changed anything.