Operational architecture
On this page 9 topics
Overview
Topics
- Monitoring
- support
- incident processes
- service ownership
Learn first
3 h of practice (estimate)
Learning outcomes
- Design monitoring, alerting, and logging for a solution that spans owned, SaaS, and on-premises components.
- Define support models (tiers, hours, escalation) and service ownership.
- Align incident and change processes between the organization and its vendors.
- Specify operational acceptance criteria for handover to operations.
Lessons
Lab and exercises
Lab
ARC-038-LAB1 · Larkspur operations
Outcomes: 1–4 · Time: ~3 h
- Design monitoring, alerting, and logging for owned, SaaS, and on-premises components.
- Define the support model: tiers, hours, escalation.
- Build the ownership map for services and integrations.
- Define vendor escalation paths and the incident and change alignment.
- Write operational acceptance criteria for handover.
- Review with a role-played head of IT operations.
Acceptance: reviewed by a role-played head of IT operations.
Exercises (case-based; six exercises)
| ID | Outcome | Task |
|---|---|---|
| ARC-038-EX01 | 1 | Design monitoring for the checkout journey across the platform, a payment SaaS, and the on-premises ERP. Include business metrics and a synthetic check. |
| ARC-038-EX02 | 1 | Support complains they cannot trace an order across systems. Define the correlation and logging approach. |
| ARC-038-EX03 | 2 | Define the support tiers, hours, and escalation for web checkout and for store tills. |
| ARC-038-EX04 | 2 | The order-to-ERP integration is "owned" by both platform and ERP teams. Resolve ownership. |
| ARC-038-EX05 | 3 | The payment vendor promises 4-hour response for priority 1. Larkspur's severity-1 expects 15-minute engagement. Align the processes. |
| ARC-038-EX06 | 4 | Write ten operational acceptance criteria for go-live handover. |
Show solutions
- EX01 Signals: order rate, payment success rate, ERP queue lag, latency; synthetic checkout every few minutes; SaaS status feed; alerts to on-call with severity; owners per signal.
- EX02 Correlation ID created at entry and passed through events and API calls; structured logs; central search; sensitive data excluded; retention set; support given a lookup tool.
- EX03 Web: 24x7 monitoring with on-call for severity 1-2, service desk first line; tills: support aligned to store trading hours, field support and a hotline; escalation times per severity.
- EX04 Assign the platform team as owner (it runs the integration code and monitoring) with the ERP team as named contact and an agreed interface contract; document in the ownership map.
- EX05 Ask the vendor for a faster priority tier or a premium support contract; internal bridge while waiting; fallback provider or degraded mode so Larkspur does not depend on the vendor's response; record in the contract review.
- EX06 Examples: monitoring and alerts live with tested routing; runbooks written and walked through; backup and restore tested; support trained; owners named; escalation tested; capacity and failover tested; access in place; documentation handed over; known issues accepted by operations.
Workplace evidence: an operating or support model you designed for a solution.
Quiz
Outcomes: O1 monitoring, alerting, and logging · O2 support models and ownership · O3 incident and change with vendors · O4 operational acceptance.
A self-check for you: nothing is graded, saved or sent anywhere. Choose an answer, then check it. You can try again as often as you like.
Practical part
Operating model review of the lab artifacts plus exercises ARC-038-EX01 to EX06. Pass: quiz at least 8/10, at least five of six exercises correct, and a lab reviewed by a role-played head of IT operations with owners for every service and integration.
Common mistakes
Operations designed after go-live; SaaS components with no monitoring; no owner for integrations.
Assessment
Operating model review.
Workplace evidence
An operating or support model you designed for a solution.
Career relevance
Operations is where solution designs are tested every day.