What software architecture means in practice
Software architecture decides whether a system stays maintainable in three years or turns into technical debt. It defines how components are divided and how they communicate. It also sets the key quality goals: performance, scalability and testability. Good architecture makes changes cheap. Bad architecture makes them risky and slow.
We consult based on concrete situations. Examples include monoliths that must move to microservices, new builds where early choices set long-term direction, and grown systems where technical debt is measurably slowing development. Every recommendation is grounded in your actual constraints. We look at team size, deployment cadence and operational capacity. We do not follow architectural fashion.
Our architecture services
Architecture Audit
Current-state analysis of existing systems: strengths, risks, technical debt and prioritised action recommendations for IT leadership and management.
Domain-driven Design
Bounded Contexts, Ubiquitous Language and aggregate patterns for complex business domains. Close alignment between domain experts and development.
Microservices Assessment
Microservices vs. monolith: honest cost-benefit evaluation for your team size, deployment frequency and operational capacity.
Migration Planning
Strangler Fig, modular monolith, incremental decomposition: migration strategy that keeps risk and budget under control.
Architecture Decision Records
Documentation of key architecture decisions (ADRs) with context, alternatives and rationale — for long-term traceability.
Arc42 Documentation
Arc42 is the dominant architecture documentation standard in German-speaking tech. We create or update Arc42 documentation for existing systems and new builds.
Arc42: the standard for software architecture documentation
Arc42 is the leading framework for architecture documentation in German-speaking software engineering. It was developed by Peter Hruschka and Gernot Starke. It offers a pragmatic, lean template with twelve sections. These cover system context, solution strategy, deployment view and architecture decisions. Arc42 scales from small projects to enterprise systems. It fits naturally with agile workflows.
We use Arc42 as the default structure for all architecture work. New system designs get a documented Arc42 baseline from day one. Existing systems without docs get a reverse-engineered Arc42 view that makes the implicit explicit.
This gives your team, auditors and future maintainers a shared frame of reference. It also makes onboarding new engineers much faster. In regulated industries and public-sector projects, Arc42 documentation is more and more often required by procurement specs.
Typical costs
Architecture Audit
Current-state analysis, risk assessment, prioritised action recommendations. Including written documentation and presentation to IT leadership.
Target architecture & planning
Complete architecture design for new build or migration: target architecture, technology selection, ADRs, risk assessment and implementation roadmap.
Ongoing architecture consulting
Regular architecture reviews, support for design decisions and coaching of the development team. Architecture Review Board format available.
Related services & resources
Schedule an architecture consultation
In a compact first session we identify where your architecture carries risk and where the biggest high-impact areas are.
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