Delivery and platform practice

How work is scoped, written down, piloted and turned into a platform others use: the forward-deployed delivery model, scoping and design docs, ADRs, workflow mapping, pilots, golden paths, reusable tooling.

This module covers how work is scoped, written down, piloted and turned into a platform that others use. It includes the forward deployed delivery model from signed scope to go-live, technical scoping and design docs, architecture decision records, mapping customer workflows to choose what to automate, and proofs of concept with measurable success criteria. It also treats the platform as a product, with golden paths and self-service templates, and shows how one-off customer builds become reusable platform features and internal tooling.

Lessons (7)

• Self-service platforms: golden paths, templates and developer tooling · Practice

  A self-service platform lets ML and product teams get a working, compliant project, pipeline or endpoint without filing a ticket.

• Writing and reviewing design docs and architecture decision records

  Platform decisions outlive the people who made them and affect every team on the platform, so they need a written record that can be reviewed before work starts.

• The forward deployed delivery model: from signed scope to go-live

  A forward deployed engineer (FDE) is a software engineer embedded with a customer, responsible for making the product work on that customer's real data, systems and processes.

• Technical scoping, design docs and solution architecture for customer engagements · Practice

  Scoping turns a customer's stated need into a bounded technical commitment, and the design document is where the trade-offs behind that commitment are written down and reviewed.

• Mapping customer workflows and choosing what to automate with AI · Practice

  Before any model is called, an FDE has to understand how the customer's work is actually done and decide which steps are worth automating.

• Rapid prototyping, POCs and pilots with measurable success criteria · Practice

  Prototypes, proofs of concept and pilots are how an FDE reduces uncertainty quickly and gives the customer evidence for a go or no-go decision.

• Turning one-off customer builds into reusable platform features and internal tooling · Practice

  Forward deployed work creates custom solutions under time pressure, and its long-term value depends on how much of that work the next engagement can reuse.

Changes

• Version 1, 2026-10-14: re-cut from the role pathway groups into a topic module (site 2026.10.2); no lesson changed