Case studies
Example assessments and the decisions they enabled. Use these as patterns, not prescriptions.
📚 Mid-stage SaaS platform
Context: Rapid feature growth + rising operational pain.
Posture snapshot
| -ility | Score |
|---|---|
| Maintainability | 2 |
| Security | 3 |
| Usability | 4 |
| Scalability | 3 |
| Extensibility | 2 |
| Availability | 3 |
| Durability | 4 |
| Portability | 2 |
Key insights
- Maintainability drift was the leading indicator of slowdown.
- Extensibility gaps forced broad coordination for small changes.
- DB bottlenecks limited predictable scaling.
Actions
- Standardize service template + observability baseline
- Introduce clear domain boundaries (modular monolith or bounded services)
- Adopt event-driven integration for cross-domain side effects
📚 Regulated data platform
Context: Compliance requirements increased while systems aged.
Posture snapshot
| -ility | Score |
|---|---|
| Maintainability | 3 |
| Security | 4 |
| Usability | 2 |
| Scalability | 3 |
| Extensibility | 2 |
| Availability | 4 |
| Durability | 5 |
| Portability | 1 |
Key insights
- Strong durability and availability; portability was intentionally low.
- Usability suffered due to defensive workflows and unclear docs.
- Extensibility gaps made regulatory changes expensive.
Actions
- Create developer portal + workflow docs to improve usability
- Introduce versioned contracts to reduce change cost
- Strategically isolate provider-specific pieces behind adapters