Architecture & assurance
Senior architecture ownership across finance, consolidation, planning, data and reporting — defining the target solution, holding it through delivery, or challenging somebody else's design before you commit to building it.
Why programmes buy this
Your integrator is paid to deliver the scope it agreed. Your vendor is paid when you buy more. Neither is dishonest, and neither is neutral. Radixa is not an SAP partner or reseller, and does not resell any platform it reviews.
The choices made in the first eight weeks determine what the solution can do in year three. They are usually made under time pressure, by people who will not be there to live with them.
Consolidation, planning, data and reporting each make sensible decisions for themselves. The cost of those decisions lands on whichever workstream integrates last.
A design authority with no standing is a reviewer. The role only works if the deviations it refuses actually stay refused, which is a governance question as much as a technical one.
Engagement modes
| Mode | Typical cadence | Use case |
|---|---|---|
| Architecture Definition | 2–8 weeks | Define the target solution before build, or during mobilisation |
| Design Authority | 1–3 days a week across the programme | Review and approve design decisions, manage cross-workstream dependencies and protect the target architecture |
| Independent Design Review | 5–15 working days | Challenge an integrator or vendor design before build, before go-live, or at a major decision gate |
The Design Authority mode is a continuing commitment, so it is agreed with a defined cadence, a named decision scope and an agreed escalation route. A design authority appointment that is vague about all three tends to become a meeting attendee.
What you get
The decision log is the one that matters most and is most often missing. A programme that cannot say why it chose something is a programme that will re-litigate the choice every time a new person joins.
Working alongside your integrator
Design authority works when it is scoped as protecting the target architecture, not as grading somebody's homework. In practice a good integrator welcomes it — decisions get made faster when there is someone empowered to make them, and the deviations that do get approved are approved knowingly rather than by silence.
Where a design genuinely needs challenging, we will challenge it, in writing, with the reasoning shown. That is what the role is for.
Related
Next step
Mobilising, mid-build, or approaching a gate — and who else is in the room. That determines whether you need architecture definition, a continuing design authority, or a single independent review.