Architect & Builder Programmes
Agentic Architecture and MCP/A2A-Aware Design
A technical cohort for architects designing systems where agents orchestrate work, tools, data and each other. Covers MCP and A2A as emerging enterprise foundations, multi-agent workflow patterns, human approval gate design, and agent observability. Participants leave with architectural patterns they can apply the following week, not just awareness.
Programme outline
- 01
From automation to agents: the architectural shift
Why agentic architecture is structurally different from scripted automation or microservices — and why familiar patterns around idempotency, retry and rollback need re-examination.
- 02
MCP in practice: tool gateways, access control and context
Model Context Protocol as an enterprise integration standard — how to design a tool gateway, how context passes between model and tool, and how MCP changes the access control model for AI systems.
- 03
A2A protocols: agent coordination, handoffs and trust
Agent-to-Agent protocols for multi-agent orchestration — how agents negotiate tasks, pass context and establish trust boundaries, and what breaks when these aren't designed explicitly.
- 04
Designing multi-agent workflows: patterns, anti-patterns and failure modes
Proven patterns (orchestrator-worker, specialist routing, parallel synthesis) and the failure modes that bring down production workflows — context loss, tool deadlock, conflicting authority.
- 05
Human approval gates: where and how to build them in
How to identify which agent actions require human approval, how to present enough context for an informed decision at a gate, and how to design gates that don't become rubber stamps.
- 06
Agent observability: what to instrument and why
What to log, what to alert on, and how to design observability into the agent stack so that quality drift, unexpected tool use and human override patterns are all visible.
- 07
Workshop: orchestration-ready architecture design
Participants sketch an agentic architecture for a real use case, evaluate it against the orchestration readiness dimensions, and receive structured feedback from the cohort and facilitator.
Where this is measured
The orchestration framework this cohort teaches — registry, workflow design, tool access, approval gates and lifecycle management — is the same ground the Operating Model and Architecture modules of DecisionOS assess against your organisation. The course builds the capability; the modules keep the record. Neither replaces the other.
The Architecture module