ARB Setup / Reset
Make architecture decisions faster and clearer without adding more bureaucracy
Not another governance committee. A practical decision-making process that helps teams move forward with clear ownership and fewer surprises.
Architecture Review Boards often start with the right intention: improve decisions, manage risk, and keep technology aligned. But over time, the process can become heavy. Too many meetings, unclear approval criteria, inconsistent decisions, excessive documentation, and architecture reviews happening only when implementation is already underway.
The opposite problem is just as common. There is no real architecture governance at all. Important technology decisions happen independently across teams, decisions are poorly documented, the same discussions happen repeatedly, and no one has a clear view of the consequences across the organisation.
ARB Setup / Reset creates or redesigns a practical architecture governance process around one simple question: what decisions need architecture oversight, who needs to be involved, and how can those decisions be made without slowing delivery?
The goal is not more governance. It is better decisions, made at the right time, with clear accountability.
Typical problems this service can address: No formal architecture review process · ARB has become a bottleneck · Too many solutions require approval · Architecture is involved too late · Unclear decision rights · Repeated architecture discussions · Inconsistent review criteria · Too much documentation · Decisions are not recorded or followed up · Business and technology priorities are disconnected · Teams bypass governance because it takes too long · No visibility of architecture exceptions and risks
What's included:
- Discovery & Current-State Review — understand how architecture decisions are currently made, who is involved, where delays occur, and what teams actually experience.
- Governance Design / Reset — define which decisions require review, when architecture should become involved, decision rights, roles, escalation paths, and practical review criteria.
- ARB Process & Templates — create or simplify the review workflow, submission requirements, decision records, review templates, and outcomes.
- Decision & Exception Management — establish how approvals, conditions, exceptions, risks, and architecture decisions are recorded and followed through.
- Measures & Operating Guidance — define lightweight measures to understand whether governance is improving decision quality and speed rather than simply creating more activity.
- Implementation Readout — walk the team through the new model, responsibilities, practical adoption steps, and recommended next actions.
Typical duration: 3–6 weeks, depending on whether an existing ARB is being reset or a governance process is being created from scratch.
The scope and price are agreed upfront based on the organisation's size, existing governance maturity, number of teams involved, and level of implementation support required.
What this does NOT include: running the ARB permanently on your behalf, detailed solution architecture, project management, implementation governance for every technology initiative, or creating documentation simply for the sake of compliance.
The result is a lightweight architecture governance model that people can actually use with clear decision rights, practical review criteria, simple templates, and a record of why important architecture decisions were made.
Is your architecture governance helping teams make decisions or just adding another approval step?
Send me a short description of how architecture decisions work today. I'll tell you whether an ARB Setup / Reset is the right starting point.
