Our Approach: Building the Organisation of the Future

Where it starts

Architecture and strategy come first

Before a line of code, we work out what proposition creates value, how it makes money, and how the organisation must be shaped to deliver it. That decision spans five lenses at once.

Business architecture Domain architecture Technology architecture Enterprise architecture Strategy & proposition design

Proposition, operating model and architecture are one decision, not three sequential ones. From it we set a high-level vision and a roadmap — pitched roughly two years out — that moves people, process and technology in step. Get the order wrong and architecture choices arrive too late to matter.

Built on proven foundations

An opinionated model, on industry-proven frameworks

We don't reinvent what works. We assemble proven industry frameworks into an opinionated model, then customise it to your organisation.

BIAN SAFe TOGAF — ABBs DBBs — our term

BIAN, SAFe and TOGAF are established standards. Domain Building Blocks (DBBs) are our own term — coined to sit alongside TOGAF's Architecture Building Blocks: where an ABB is a reusable technical capability, a DBB is a reusable banking capability. It's our opinionated view, and our advisory tailors it to you.

How delivery is organised

Squads, Domain Building Blocks and value streams

A composable organisation is built by small, senior, cross-functional squads — each owning the capabilities it delivers, grouped into value streams aligned to propositions.

Domain Building Blocks

A DBB packages a meaningful banking capability — journey, policy, controls, evidence and execution — that is reused across propositions instead of copied. (Our term, alongside TOGAF's ABBs.)

Squads own the DBBs

Each squad owns one or more Domain Building Blocks end-to-end. Small enough to move fast, senior enough to be accountable for what they ship.

Value streams (SAFe)

Squads group into value streams aligned to a proposition and its P&L. The SAFe model gives you coordination across squads without re-centralising delivery.

The shape of a squad

Deliberately small. One squad, five people, accountable for its Domain Building Blocks.

1Product Owner

1Tech Lead / Architect

2Engineers

1Data Engineer

This is our default, not a mandate. Where design, QA, risk, SRE and data sit — inside the squad, in a shared enabling team, or as cross-cutting chapters — depends on your people and talent, and AI is now blurring those role boundaries fast. We've run it both ways and advise the right shape for you.

What's really important

The whole organisation reorganises around the squads

Banks are cutting costs everywhere. The model's value is showing what to protect and invest in — because the squad framework only works when the whole business moves with it.

Our job isn't to add to the cut list. It's to show what's genuinely important — the capabilities, controls and architecture decisions worth protecting — whether you run an established bank, are standing up a new sub-division, or are a founder starting from scratch.

Risk, finance, HR, regulatory affairs, compliance and operations each have to align to how value is now delivered and evidenced. For an established organisation the risk is fragmentation — these functions siloed and duplicated per product. For a new sub-division or a startup it's the opposite: under-building the real bank, then discovering its weight in production.

And a real bank is heavy: multi-currency, multi-country, multi-regulator. Even an ambitious "zero-ops" model still needs a substantial, accountable business wrapped around it. Automation reduces effort; it does not remove the obligation.

From

Functional silos
Projects & programmes
Status reporting
Duplicated stacks per product

To

Value streams
Durable squads
Accountable autonomy
Evidence over status

Two starting points, one destination

Getting there from where you are

Most of our work is whole-organisation transformation for established banks and FinTechs. The same model also gives teams building something new — a new sub-division, or a startup — a way to start right.

If you already run a bank or FinTech

The hard part is sequencing change while keeping the lights on. We start with architecture and strategy, pick a beachhead proposition, and stand up the first value stream and squads around its Domain Building Blocks. Shadow integration lets you prove value alongside the existing estate without re-platforming — then you expand block by block, migrate the business functions in step, and decommission the old path only once the new one is proven.

If you're building something new — a sub-division or a startup

The hard part is building enough bank without a cost base you can't carry. We start from the proposition, the P&L and the licence perimeter, stand up the first squad around the smallest set of DBBs that makes it real, and build the minimum credible bank underneath — the accountable functions a regulator and a customer actually require, designed on purpose — then compose the next proposition from the same building blocks.

Where DTA helps

Whole-organisation, single-squad, or the move in between

We're an advisory. You build your own blueprint; we bring the model, the method and the proof. Our opinionated model and reference architecture stay our IP — what you keep is the capability.

Whole-organisation transformation

From the CEO down — proposition, P&L, operating model, people and culture, risk and controls, and the production architecture that ties it together.

Stand up specific squads

Build and embed individual squads around their Domain Building Blocks, with the tooling, skills and evals that let them ship safely from day one.

Plan the migration

The hard work of moving an existing bank or FinTech onto the new model — sequencing, shadow integration, and the path that keeps the lights on while you change.

From proposition to working spike

Decide a proposition. We help you prove it.

Choose a proposition — say the Family Wealth Hub — and we help you build a spike for it: either standalone, or shadow-integrated alongside your existing bank so you can prove value without re-platforming.

Our reference prototype shows the technology is genuinely possible, and that it can be connected directly to business value in an agentic way — agents that observe, prepare, check and execute within explicit authority and human approval.

Explore the showcase Book a call

Build the organisation of the future — on purpose.

Architecture and strategy come first

An opinionated model, on industry-proven frameworks