I plan and prototype SaaS architectures for startups

Startups need to launch quickly and adapt to change easily. However, it is very difficult to figure out the right technical decisions to do that. As a result, startups risk choosing too complex solutions for their business and hiring situation.

Imagine having a strategic plan that answers many of the hard-to-change architecture decisions and a prototype that showcases their implementation using lightweight solutions.

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My Service

I am an independent software architect who helps startup development teams to plan and prototype SaaS platforms:

Planning

I help startups to create a shared understanding among developers and business leaders of how to develop, deploy and operate their system while taking care of aspects like security, reliability, performance, privacy and costs. This helps leaders to identify risks and to manage and balance how development time should be spent. It also helps developers to make technical decisions in alignment with a bigger plan. To plan a system, I create a code repository that outlines the system architecture and documents it in markdown format. This turns it into a living architecture overview that integrates seamlessly into the codebase and processes that developers use every day.

My Architecture Template
Prototyping

I build prototypes that contain a basic implementation of the planned system. They implement everything necessary to proof that the planned system with all its applications and infrastructure components is actually working. A prototype can be used as an initial codebase that is basically ready for development and deployment of features. I use popular JavaScript-based frameworks and simple cloud-based infrastructure solutions. They only require Full Stack JavaScript skills to understand. Therefore they help development teams that want to focus mainly on application development without being distracted by infrastructure complexity.

My Protoypes

Hiring Me

I work as an external architect that augments development teams without becoming a permanent member. I can be consulted in situations with important or hard-to-change decisions. This typically happens at the beginning of a project but can also be helpful later. I charge fixed prices for planning and prototyping missions which means I get paid for delivering results and not for time. This can be less risky than a development team with time-based salary.

I am interested

References

Here are a few projects I have worked on as a software architect:

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E-Commerce Platform
A late-stage e-commerce startup was developing a headless commerce platform to replace their existing Magento-based shop. I was hired to help them improve collaboration within and across their partially outsourced development teams. My job was to propose improvements to higher management and work with project managers and developers to implement them.
  • Align development workflows of frontend and backend team

    The workflow of a frontend and a backend development team had to be aligned to handle breaking backend/API changes properly. I documented the workflow and proposed specific changes to the teams.

  • Dealing with knowledge silos

    A development team faced problems of an unbalanced knowledge accumulation and dependence on a leading developer. I interviewed all developers to identify knowledge gaps and organized knowledge transfer workshops to foster a more autonomous work style among developers.

  • Quality / performance tracking metrics

    I integrated Google Lighthouse into the automated deployment process of the web app and set up a tracking dashboard, that allowed project managers to track a number of quality and performance metrics over time.

  • Infrastructure troubleshooting tools

    The company wanted to collect and analyze log messages from various systems to help developers with troubleshooting infrastructure issues. I prototyped multiple solutions and aligned stakeholders from different teams.

Vue.js
Magento
Lighthouse
GitLab
Docker
Kubernetes
Heroku
Elasticsearch
Grafana

Jörn Buchwald

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Coding has been my passion since age 12 and my full-time profession since 2013. I have been an employee, a startup co-founder and a freelancer. I worked for startups as well as large corporations mostly on frontend development (TypeScript, Web, Hybrid Mobile), but also backend development (Node, Java, PHP) and cloud infrastructure (CI/CD, Docker, AWS, Serverless, Kubernetes). Despite these different projects I have always been driven to solve a very fundamental problem: Finding a systematic approach to software development that works. With growing experience my understanding of this problem also grew and my interest expanded from purely technical aspects to project management, team collaboration and business organization. It became my mission to reveal and improve the connections between these topics and I started to deviate from the typical career path of a specialized developer to become a generalist.

  • Master of Science, Applied Computer Science, Ruhr-University Bochum
  • Professional software development since 2013, 10+ projects
  • Full Stack Developer, Application Architect, Former Co-Founder
  • German, English

Interested?

Let's see if I can help. Feel free to contact me in English or German to schedule a first call.

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