How To Validate Architecture

Anand Nerurkar
1 day ago
3 min read

🧭 1️⃣ What Architecture Validation Means

It’s the structured process of verifying that the proposed or implemented solution:

Meets business and functional requirements,
Complies with enterprise standards and principles,
Delivers expected non-functional outcomes (scalability, security, resiliency, cost),
Fits well within the target state architecture and ecosystem.

🏗️ 2️⃣ When Validation Happens

Stage	Purpose	Artifacts Reviewed
Pre-Design (Concept Stage)	Validate alignment with business capability, target state, and reference architecture	Business case, capability map, architecture vision
Design Stage	Validate logical and physical design consistency	HLD, LLD, integration diagram, ADRs
Build Stage	Validate implementation alignment with approved design	CI/CD configurations, IaC templates, code review
Pre-Go-Live (Release)	Validate readiness, resilience, and security posture	NFR test results, penetration test, DR plan
Post-Go-Live	Validate performance & operational KPIs	Monitoring dashboards, audit logs, cost optimization report

🧩 3️⃣ Validation Framework (5-Dimension Model)

Dimension	What to Validate	How to Validate	Tools / Techniques
Business Alignment	Does the solution meet the business capability and roadmap goals?	Compare against enterprise capability model, business KPIs	Capability mapping, impact analysis
Technology Alignment	Does the tech stack follow enterprise standards and reference architectures?	Check for approved tech stack and patterns	EA repository (LeanIX, ADO), design checklist
Security & Compliance	Are data, access, and integration flows secure and compliant (e.g., RBI, GDPR)?	Review data classification, encryption, and security controls	Threat modeling, STRIDE, OWASP, DevSecOps pipeline
Performance & Scalability	Are NFRs met under load and peak conditions?	Conduct stress, load, and failover testing	JMeter, BlazeMeter, Azure Load Testing
Integration & Interoperability	Do services and systems communicate seamlessly?	Validate API contracts, schema compatibility, message queues	Postman, Swagger, contract testing, Kafka schema registry

⚙️ 4️⃣ Key Techniques & Mechanisms

Technique	Purpose / Example
Architecture Review Board (ARB)	Peer-review of solution designs before approval. Evaluate adherence to enterprise patterns, cloud strategy, and NFRs.
Architecture Decision Records (ADRs)	Document rationale for major design choices. Enables traceability during audit or refactoring.
Automated Compliance Scanning	Tools like SonarQube, Checkov, or OPA to validate IaC, coding, and cloud configuration compliance.
Reference Architecture Alignment	Validate solution diagrams against domain-specific reference blueprints (e.g., digital lending, core banking, data mesh).
Design Walkthroughs / Peer Reviews	Collaborative reviews with engineers, architects, and security teams to uncover early design issues.
Architecture Scorecards	Quantify architecture maturity per solution (scalability, modularity, cloud readiness, reusability, etc.).
Traceability Matrices	Map requirements → design → test → deployment to ensure full coverage.

🧠 5️⃣ Example (Digital Lending Platform)

Goal:

Validate architecture of Loan Origination Microservices Platform before production rollout.

Area	Validation	Outcome
Business Fit	Ensured all loan types (home, auto, personal) mapped to capability model	✅ 100% coverage
Integration	Kafka event flow validated between KYC, Credit, and Risk services	✅ Message delivery within SLA
Security	OAuth2 + Azure Key Vault integration validated; encryption-in-transit verified	✅ Passed penetration test
Performance	Load tested at 10K concurrent users; throughput 25% above NFR	✅ Approved for go-live
Cloud Architecture	Verified AKS + Istio + Azure SQL deployment meets HA/DR	✅ Compliant with Cloud EA

📊 6️⃣ Architecture Validation Metrics (KPIs)

KPI	Target	Validation Approach
% of projects reviewed by ARB	100%	Track through EA dashboard
% of designs compliant with standards	>95%	Review scorecards
Architecture deviation rate	<5%	Exception log
Mean time to resolve design non-conformance	<30 days	Governance risk register
% of NFR targets met	>90%	Test reports, performance logs

🔁 7️⃣ Continuous Validation (Post-Deployment)

Even after go-live, validation continues:

Continuous monitoring of KPIs via Prometheus, Grafana, ELK.
Periodic architecture audits for drift detection.
Cost optimization checks using cloud-native tools (Azure Cost Management, AWS Cost Explorer).
Update ADR and reference patterns with learnings from production.

✅ In summary:

Architecture validation is not a one-time event — it’s a continuous, lifecycle-based discipline combining governance, automation, traceability, and metrics.It ensures that every design decision delivers measurable business value while staying compliant, scalable, and resilient.