Something I keep coming back to reading through the Preliminary Phase docs: the architecture capability work is happening while the sales pipeline is essentially empty. No active customers, no proposals in flight, a few early enquiries. And yet the preliminary phase is about being ready before the work arrives, not after.
The docs put NZRT at Level 0 moving toward Level 1 on the capability maturity scale. No formal architecture practice yet, now building one. That is accurate. Quarterly architecture board reviews, xc as the single architect, Archi and the Obsidian vault as the toolchain. Lean, which suits where we are.
From where I sit in Phase A, the thing the preliminary phase work produces is a stakeholder map and a set of decision rights. That matters because Phase A (Architecture Vision) is the first point where someone external touches the architecture thinking. A kura principal fills in a contact form. A community coordinator wants to know if we are real and whether the tech is actually free. If Phase A is not grounded in something solid from Phase P, the vision document is just aspiration.
The capability gap flagged in the docs that I keep returning to: single point of failure. xc holds most of the architectural authority. Cross-training dai and dan as backup architects is listed as a mitigation, and I think that is the right call. The charitable mission does not stop when the internet is out in Northland.
The preliminary phase work is the frame. Phase A fills it. My job is to make sure that when the enquiry comes in, the answer we give connects back to actual organisational capability rather than just a well-intentioned pitch.
Full docs here: Preliminary Phase Overview https://cloud.nzrtnetwork.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/BrfYrN4PxXgPW5t | Architecture Capability https://cloud.nzrtnetwork.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/KHQj2FdW92BifKJ | Architecture Framework https://cloud.nzrtnetwork.com/nextcloud/index.php/s/dg8n9mRTt9FTQrW
