This is the second post in our IT Modernization blog series
Phase: Discovery and Design
Most IT transformation projects begin with a flurry of whiteboards, architecture diagrams, and ambiguous promises. Teams talk in abstractions like “modernize the data layer” or “migrate to microservices,” but rarely align these plans with the actual skills and capacity of the people expected to execute them.
That is exactly where most projects begin to fail.
Oberon brings structure and reality into discovery and design. It bridges the gap between architecture and execution by making team capabilities visible, auditable, and actionable.
Aligning Skills with Technical Architecture
You cannot design a realistic modernization plan unless you understand what your team is actually capable of. Oberon starts by anchoring technical planning in validated skill data.
Using the Arborist Competency Generator, Oberon builds a dynamic skills taxonomy specific to your project context. For example, if your discovery goals include moving to a Kubernetes-based platform, the system surfaces exactly which team members have proven experience with Helm, container orchestration, and observability stacks based on past work histories and actions and their assessed competencies.
No guesswork. No overpromising. Just verified matchups between architecture layers and delivery capabilities.
This prevents the classic pattern of designing an elegant solution that your team cannot actually build or support. And if gaps are detected, Oberon Learning kicks in immediately with targeted recommendations — whether it is a short course, documentation set, lab environment, or shadow assignment.
Structuring the Project into Workstreams
With clarity around your people, Oberon helps you break large, ambiguous scopes into real deliverable units. Using the Chessboard view, teams can model different project workstreams and see how each aligns to skills, workloads, and team composition.
Say you're designing a multi-phase migration from on-prem systems to Azure. Oberon lets you assign:
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Discovery and inventory work to internal infrastructure staff
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Initial Infrastructure as Code setup to a blended team with an external Terraform expert and two client engineers on a mentoring track
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Monitoring configuration to junior team members who recently completed relevant training modules in Prometheus
This structure is not static. As learning events are completed or milestones are hit, Oberon updates capability ratings automatically. You can reassign or reprioritize based on real growth, not assumptions.
Enabling Learning During Design
This is where Oberon’s advantage becomes transformational.
Most consulting engagements treat learning as something that happens after the project. Oberon builds it into the early phases. During design, you can assign developmental tasks and structured mentorships that are tracked like any other deliverable.
A junior architect might be tasked with drafting the initial security model under review by a senior consultant. Oberon tracks both the task and the skill coverage, and once reviewed, logs this against the internal employee’s growing competency in that area.
It’s not just about delivery anymore. It’s about building a workforce that gets stronger every week of the engagement.
Smarter Co-Design With Partners
From the service provider’s side, this phase is where credibility is earned. Instead of dictating technical direction, partners using Oberon co-design the delivery model alongside the client. They use skill data to justify why certain tasks are owned internally, co-owned, or led externally.
This transparency reduces friction, builds trust, and lays the groundwork for shared success.
Consultants are no longer just executing against a vague blueprint. They are operating inside a structured, verified model that sets them and the client up for long-term impact.
