When CTOs find out their architecture has a problem

We all believe we know our architecture's drawbacks and we anticipate their costs. But we, the CTOs are almost always wrong and too optimistic. Hence we find our architecture's issues when it is already too expensive to fix.

A missed security control at design time costs tens of thousands of EUR in remediation. A misaligned system boundary costs six months of rework. An undocumented decision shows only at a key engineer's departure, with institutional knowledge you can't recover.

These were always foreseeable, only if you had a baseline to compare against. A burger at McD's is same all over the world and you can rely on its quality because of a baseline all worker has to follow, a checklist each has at their stations.

As a CTO, you have so many topics, don't you think you need one of those tailored to your job? But all so unique. Content-wise you are right. Structure-wise however...

My Tech North Star packages give you, the executives a validated reference architecture — not a theoretical framework you put to the drawer a day after download. These are real patterns built from real delivery programmes I delivered — so you can benchmark your current state and spot gaps before any of them become a crises.

Customize to your organization and situation in days. Not months and after ludicrous consulting fees. Only an afternoon to orient, a week at most to adapt to your situation.

Then confidently walk into any architecture review with C4 diagrams, ADRs, and cost-of-ownership analysis your board and auditors already understand.