Solution Architecture
Comprehensive academic program for designing software and AI-enabled systems.
Program Overview
The micro-master’s program is dedicated to the basics of developing complex technical solutions to solve business problems. In 10 weeks, we will cover key concepts in architecture: from business aspects and requirements to structures, types of architectures, and approaches to their design. A dedicated module covers the architecture of AI-enabled systems: retrieval, agents, data and delivery lifecycle, evaluation, and governance.
You will be able to use the knowledge gained in your work immediately or practice it with the lecturer through homework and practical workshops. This training is based on a hands-on approach to answer all your questions and help you immerse yourself in the topic faster.
What you will learn
Requirements for participants
Educational modules
Module 1: Solution Architecture fundamentals
You will understand the basics of solution architecture and its role in system design. You will also learn about architectural patterns and their impact on project outcomes.
Module Content- Introduction to architectural disciplines
- Introduction to solution architecture
- Examples of architectures, models and architectural patterns
- The evolution of architectures
- Architecture structures and views
Module 2. Business architecture
Explore the intersection of architecture and business. You will learn about the role of business architecture in aligning development with business goals and analyze the influence of key stakeholders on the choice of architecture.
- Business architecture: core concepts
- Business architecture overview
- Stakeholders and stakeholder management
- Business requirements
- Techniques
- Workshop 1 - Goals and drivers
Module 3: Significant requirements in architecture
Learn about functional and non-functional requirements and their impact on system design. Work through key quality assurance (QA) requirements, constraints, and architecturally significant requirements (ASR) to make informed architectural decisions.
Module Content- Requirements
- Architecturally significant requirements (ASR)
- Identifying and documenting ASRs
- Quality attribute scenarios and the SEI workshop
- From ASRs to quality attributes and common mistakes
Module 4: Quality attributes
Identify the key roles of quality attributes in architecture. Learn the basic design principles and architectural tactics for creating systems that meet the organization's goals.
- Introduction to quality attributes
- Maintainability/modifiability
- Performance
- Scalability
- Reliability
- Availability
- Security
- Achieving quality attributes: design concepts
- Achieving quality attributes: Architecture Design
- Attribute-Driven Design
- Tactics
- Workshop 2 - Quality attributes
- Workshop 3 - Achieving quality attributes
Module 5: Architectural styles and patterns
Learn architectural styles and patterns, including Microservice architecture, that will help you adapt existing solutions to your company's challenges and provide insight into future trends in architecture.
- General principles
- Architectural style: Monolith, Layered and Microservices
- Architectural style: Event-Driven
- Architectural style: Actor Based and Module Based
- Architectural style: REST
- Performance and Scalability patterns
- Integration pattern
- Fault Tolerance pattern
- Security pattern
- Release pattern
Module 6: Architecture modeling
Delve deeper into architectural modeling by exploring different types of notations to visualize complex systems. You'll also understand how to communicate architectural concepts clearly and discover best practices for visualizing processes.
- Types of notation
- Unified Modeling Language (UML)
- Business Process Model and Notation (BPMN)
- Notations: Flowcharts and Mind Maps
- Best practices and modelling tools
- Workshop 4 - Architecture modeling
- Workshop 5 - Creating diagrams
Module 7. Effective Estimations in IT Projects
Understand the power of accurate estimations for project success. You'll learn to differentiate between precision and accuracy, efficiently use various units of estimation such as man-days and story points, and apply techniques that reduce uncertainty in your forecasts.
- Estimation principles
- Estimation dimensions
- Estimation techniques
- Workshop 6 - Estimations in IT projects
Module 8. Presales
Gain a comprehensive overview of the presales process in IT, from understanding team roles to a deep dive into RFI, RFQ, and RFT processes. Learn how to form high-level project designs, plan resources, and choose the right pricing models for effective project management.
- Presales timeline, scope and process
- REP, RFI, RFQ
- High-level design and WBS
- Resource plan
- Pricing models
- Contracts
- Workshop 7 - Presales
Module 9: AI Solution Architecture
Apply the same architectural discipline to AI-enabled systems that you apply to any other solution: business goals, architecturally significant requirements, quality attributes, and explicit trade-offs. You will learn to decide when a system needs retrieval, an agent, or a deterministic workflow, and to design the knowledge, data, evaluation, and governance layers that make such a system safe to operate.
Module Content- AI workload types: prediction, retrieval, generation, workflow automation, and agentic action
- Choosing the least complex option: deterministic workflow, single model, model router, or multi-agent system
- System boundary, human responsibility, and ASRs for AI systems
- Knowledge architecture: ingestion, parsing, chunking, metadata, and access filters
- Retrieval design: keyword, semantic, hybrid, graph-based, and structured query
- Evidence, freshness, citation validity, and retrieval evaluation
- Agent loop, agent harness, and agent patterns
- Model routing, fallback, and multi-model patterns
- Agent memory types, retention, and deletion rules
- Tool contracts and protocol boundaries: MCP, A2A, and standard APIs
- Data stores for AI: operational, document, vector, graph, memory, and audit
- Delivery lifecycle: versioning, evaluation, release, monitoring, and rollback
- Quality measures for business outcome, retrieval, response, agent behaviour, and cost
- Observability: traces, drift, and incident response
- Guardrails, autonomy tiers, and human approval points
- AI governance: ownership, evidence, audit, change control, and decommissioning
- Workshop 8 - AI Architecture for Corporate System
Curators and teachers
Oleksii Popov
17+ років в інженерії — від розробника до CTO. Впроваджує ШІ в повний цикл розробки та будує AI-native інженерні команди.
- Ex-CTO у CHI Software — інженерна організація з 800 фахівців
- Ex-VP of Engineering у GenAI.Works — платформа оркестрації ШІ-агентів для спільноти з 12+ млн учасників
- Керував інженерними організаціями на 250–300 FTE у Customertimes і S-PRO
- Solution Architect в EPAM; Head of Software Engineering у fintech-компанії Kreditech (Гамбург)
- AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Professional
У SET University керує програмами GenAI and Agentic AI for Software Engineering та Solution Architecture.
Oleksandr Velichko
13+ years of software development experience. 5+ years of experience in Solution Architecture at EPAM and S-PRO. MSc in Computer Science.
Rostyslav Myronenko
Solutions Architect at Booking.com (Amsterdam, the Netherlands) with about 12 years of experience in software engineering in different engineering roles, Solutions Architect since 2018. From Kharkiv, Ukraine.
Main focus: solution architecture, AWS, Kubernetes, SDLC, team leadership, mentoring, growing a team.
Full AWS Certified (13 active AWS certifications), holder of the legendary AWS Golden Jacket.
Sergiy Synkovskyy
Director of Production Engineering at NDA, Partner at RoboBanky. Ex-VP of Infrastructure at Dfns. Master’s degree in computer science. More than 15 years of experience in information security, distributed systems development and software engineering.
Benefits
Practical skills and knowledge for organizing the work of technical teams and building project architecture
Comprehensive practical program for solving real business cases
Adaptive online learning – can be combined with full-time work
Work in groups with constant feedback from teachers
One-on-one consultation with Alexey Popov for each participant
Student reviews
Vlad Balabash
4 years as a Solution Architect in an enterprise. Dozens of projects. Production systems running in the wild. And yet — gaps remained. Things I did intuitively but couldn’t always articulate.
That’s why I took the Solution Architecture Program at SET University. Not to start a career, but to level it up.
Huge thanks to Oleksii Popov — your mentorship turned “I think this is right” into “I know why this is right.” And to Oleksandr Velichko for opening my eyes to the variety of client types, diagram best practices, and the art of being confidently present in any room!
Olha Savenko
Life-long learning has always been a core belief of mine. And after 10 years working in Tech and Data, it has definitely become clear that learning is never optional. You’re constantly “catching up” with new technologies, modern stacks, and tools)
The Solution Architecture Program genuinely reshaped the way I think about achieving business goals through architectural solutions, especially when designing scalable customer data systems. The program helped me deepen my approach to answering critical questions around scalability, security, and long-term adaptability, while managing technical complexity and potential risks.
Beyond the learning itself, the true value also lies in the community I became part of – an inspiring group of IT, Data, and Tech professionals with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
Alyona Kostenko
The Solution Architecture program covered business architecture, requirements engineering, quality attributes, architectural styles and patterns, architectural modeling, estimation, and presales. Huge thanks to the lecturers for sharing their expertise, and to everyone who took the time to review and give feedback on the homework assignments.
Serhii Andriienko
I really enjoyed it, because I’ve always looked at products beyond just code: business goals, service interactions, non-functional requirements (performance, reliability, security), trade-offs, risks — and how to bring all of that together into a solution that is maintainable and scalable.
Thanks to SET University for the high-quality content and a strong foundation. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to structure their thinking and move from “building a feature” to “designing a system that can stand up to real-world conditions.”
For whom
Middle+ Software Engineers (Front-/Back-end)
Team Leads and Engineering Managers
DevOps and Data Engineers
Software Architects
FAQ
Will we do any programming during the course?
No. Participants will not be coding directly during the course. However, an understanding of algorithms, computer science basics, and the organization of technical teams is required.
Will there be a capstone project as part of the program?
No. The program includes extensive practical assignments with feedback from curators.
I already work as a Solution Architect, does it make sense to take this course?
The course will help you:
– Strengthen your skills with an industry approach and best practices. Validate existing approaches and solutions with expert feedback.
– Improve your decision-making process: Improve your architectural decision-making skills to help you provide the most effective and efficient solutions to complex problems, beyond just a technical view.
– Prepare to mentor junior architects and specialists in management positions.
Is this program suitable for me if I want to move towards management positions but do not plan to become a Solution Architect?
Yes. After the training, you will gain a better understanding of how to communicate with technical and non-technical teams. You will be able to make informed decisions by understanding architectural concepts.
Learn more about the SET University program
