AI Solutions Architect, end to end.
4 modules · 15 lessons · 4 project labs · ~9h of reading. Every entry lists what you end up holding, so you can audit the whole path before paying for any of it.
MOD 01Frame: the engagement
Turn a wish into a chartered engagement with budgets: what the role decides, how discovery produces numbers, and how the client's segment fixes the constraints before any design starts.
- 01The Architect Decides What Not to BuildRead · 29m · concise path · 4 quiz · free · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: An engagement charter for one real or course case: problem, users, non-goals, pilot exit evidence, milestones.
- 02Discovery Turns Wishes Into BudgetsRead · 29m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: An NFR budget sheet and a use-case qualification scorecard for your case, each budget with a number, a measurement and an owner.
- 03Six Clients, Six ConstraintsRead · 26m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: A client-segment profile and a constraint register for your case, listing every constraint with its source and its owner.
- 04The Engagement CharterProject · 19m · updated 2026-09-15
You end with: The first three files of your Architecture Dossier: the charter, the NFR budget sheet and the constraint register, built from a provided discovery transcript.
MOD 02Decide: the system
The six design decisions every LLM system contains, each taken by the budgets and recorded as a decision record: model, context, grounding data, agent pattern, integration boundaries, and where it runs.
- 05Choose the Model by the Budget, Not the BenchmarkRead · 31m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-27
You end with: A model-selection ADR for your case with the review condition that would reverse it, plus a routing sketch.
- 06Context Is an Architecture, Not a PromptRead · 29m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-27
You end with: A context specification for your case: layers with token budgets, a cache layout with TTL choice, and the output schemas at each boundary.
- 07Grounding Data Is a Governed AssetRead · 31m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: A grounding-data design document and an augmentation ADR: ingestion, chunking, index, access rules, freshness, and the retrieval metrics that will prove it.
- 08The Least Agentic Pattern That WorksRead · 30m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: An agent specification for your case: the pattern chosen and why, the loop with its exits, and a tool catalogue with schemas, idempotency rules and risk ratings.
- 09Protocols and BoundariesRead · 31m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-15
You end with: An integration specification for your case: the MCP/tool inventory, the identity each call runs under, the consent and approval flows, and where the gateway sits.
- 10Where It Runs Decides What It CostsRead · 31m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-27
You end with: A topology ADR and a tenancy model for your case, with the residency and isolation requirements each satisfies.
- 11The ADR Pack and Reference ArchitectureProject · 16m · updated 2026-09-15
You end with: Three ADRs (model, augmentation, topology) and a reference architecture for your case: context and container diagrams in mermaid plus one request sequence, all in the Dossier.
MOD 03Prove: the evidence
The three documents that turn a design into a defensible pilot: an evaluation plan with a validated judge, a cost model the CFO can audit, and a threat model that treats the agent as the attack surface.
- 12Evals Are the ContractRead · 32m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-27
You end with: An evaluation plan for your case: the golden set spec, the rubric, the judge validation protocol with its agreement threshold, and the CI gate.
- 13The Cost Model That Survives the CFORead · 32m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-27
You end with: A cost model for your case: cost per task with the math shown, a twelve-month TCO under three scenarios, and the self-host break-even.
- 14Threat Model the Agent, Not the ModelRead · 29m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: A threat model for your case: a trust-boundary data-flow diagram, a control matrix mapped to OWASP and ATLAS IDs, and a red-team test plan.
- 15The Evidence PackProject · 19m · updated 2026-09-15
You end with: The evidence pack for your case: the eval plan, the cost model and the threat model, ending in a written go/no-go for the pilot.
MOD 04Run: production and governance
What lets the system go live and stay live: obligations mapped to design elements, a runbook with SLOs and fallbacks, and a staged rollout whose gates, human oversight and exit options are written down.
- 16Compliance by DesignRead · 33m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-27
You end with: A compliance annex for your case: each applicable obligation mapped to a design element and the evidence it produces, with the date it applies.
- 17Operate What You ShippedRead · 30m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: A reliability runbook for your case: SLOs, the fallback chain, retry and loop budgets, the trace schema, and the incident playbook.
- 18From Pilot to Production and BackRead · 31m · concise path · 4 quiz · updated 2026-09-13
You end with: A staged rollout plan for your case: entry and exit criteria per stage, the HITL policy per stage, the adoption plan, and the exit options.
- 19The Architecture DossierProject · 20m · updated 2026-09-15
You end with: The complete Architecture Dossier for your case, reviewed against the course's Well-Architected-style checklist, with a one-page executive summary a buyer could sign.