DEV203IntermediateDeveloper Tools Playbook 5 live updates

Decisions Over Diagrams: How Bell Financial Group Architects on AWS

What this session is about

Architecture diagrams show what you built. They don't explain why. At Bell Financial Group, every major technology choice — from landing zone design to compute platform to database engine — is captured in an Architecture Decision Document that forces honest evaluation of trade-offs. In this talk, the Head of Engineering at Bell Financial Group walks through the real decisions behind their AWS platform: why ECS Fargate beat EKS, when DynamoDB wins over relational databases, why the entire infrastructure is written in TypeScript CDK, and the deliberate constraints they place on Lambda usage. No slides full of boxes and arrows — just the reasoning, the trade-offs, and the lessons learned building a regulated financial services platform on AWS.

Playbook

Editorial commentary · what to actually do about this on Monday

The concept
Every architecture decision captured in an Architecture Decision Document. ECS Fargate over EKS. DynamoDB over relational where appropriate. TypeScript CDK everywhere. Deliberate constraints on Lambda usage.
Why it matters
Diagrams show what you built. ADRs explain *why*. Without ADRs, every new hire re-litigates settled decisions.
The hard parts
ADRs require discipline that most teams don't have. They feel like overhead until you need them.
Playbook moves
(1) Start now. Backfill ADRs for the 10 biggest decisions of the last year. (2) Make new ADRs mandatory for major changes. (3) Review ADRs annually — circumstances change.
The surprise
ADRs are the cheapest insurance against tech-debt litigation. When the next CTO asks "why did we pick X?", a good ADR settles it in 5 minutes. Without one, the question reopens forever — and your team burns hours each time. Start the discipline this quarter. ---

Independent editorial perspective — not an official AWS or speaker statement. Designed for executives evaluating what to brief their teams on next.

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