# Architecture Discovery Framework

**OrdoAnimi Engagement Toolkit**
Use during Module 02 — Intelligence Gathering. Structured questions to surface the Current Intent Statement (CIS).

---

## Purpose

Discovery is not a requirements workshop. It is an intelligence operation. The goal is to understand:

1. What the organisation *thinks* it wants
2. What it *actually* needs
3. What is *preventing* it from getting there
4. What *decisions* have already been made — visible or not

A good discovery session produces the CIS. Every question below is designed to surface one of the four above.

---

## Opening Frame

Set this expectation at the start:

> "I'm going to ask questions that may seem basic. Some will be things you've already decided. I'm not challenging those decisions — I'm mapping them so I don't design around assumptions that don't exist."

---

## Section 1 — Organisational Context

| Question | What it surfaces |
|---|---|
| What does this organisation do, and why does this system matter to that? | Strategic alignment |
| Who are the top three internal consumers of what this system produces? | Stakeholder map |
| What would break if this system stopped working for 24 hours? | Criticality |
| What changed in the last 12 months that made this engagement necessary? | Trigger |
| Is there pressure from above — a ministerial, a board, a regulator? | Constraint origin |

**Notes:**

---

## Section 2 — Current State

| Question | What it surfaces |
|---|---|
| What does the current system look like — draw it on a whiteboard? | Actual vs documented state |
| When was the current architecture last reviewed? | Staleness |
| What do you know is wrong with it? | Known debt |
| What have you tried before that didn't work? | Scar tissue |
| Are there shadow systems or workarounds in use? | Hidden complexity |
| What does the monitoring tell you — what keeps breaking? | Operational reality |

**Notes:**

---

## Section 3 — Decision Inventory

| Question | What it surfaces |
|---|---|
| What platform or vendor decisions have already been made? | Constraints |
| Who made those decisions and when? | Decision authority |
| Are any of those decisions reversible? | Solution space |
| Are there approved-product lists or enterprise standards that apply? | Mandates |
| Is there an existing enterprise architecture position on this domain? | Alignment requirement |

**Notes:**

---

## Section 4 — Risk & Sensitivity

| Question | What it surfaces |
|---|---|
| What would a failed delivery look like? | Risk tolerance |
| Who would be held accountable if this went wrong? | Political risk |
| Is there a compliance or regulatory obligation attached to this? | External constraint |
| Has this been through a TRA or security assessment before? | Assurance history |
| Is there anything politically sensitive I should know before I design? | Stakeholder dynamics |

**Notes:**

---

## Section 5 — Future State Intent

| Question | What it surfaces |
|---|---|
| If this engagement is successful, what does that look like in 12 months? | Success definition |
| What does success look like in 3 years? | Strategic horizon |
| Are there adjacent systems that this needs to integrate with? | Integration surface |
| Are there systems that will be retired or replaced? | Migration scope |
| What are you *not* willing to change? | Hard constraints |

**Notes:**

---

## Section 6 — The Blank Cell Test

Apply the Heat Map. For every blank cell — every unanswered question — ask:

> "This is blank. Is it blank because you don't know, because nobody has decided, or because someone has decided and isn't sharing?"

Record the answer. The pattern of blanks tells you the archetype.

| Domain | Blank count | Reason for blanks | Archetype signal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security | | | |
| Integration | | | |
| Data | | | |
| Infrastructure | | | |
| Governance | | | |
| Resourcing | | | |

---

## Current Intent Statement — Draft

Synthesise discovery into the CIS format:

**The organisation wants to:**

**In order to:**

**Subject to the following constraints:**
1.
2.
3.

**The key decisions already made are:**
1.
2.
3.

**The key decisions still open are:**
1.
2.
3.

**The primary risk if this is not resolved is:**

---

## Discovery Session Log

| Session | Date | Attendees | Key outputs |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | | |
| 2 | | | |
| 3 | | | |