Neueda

Empowering Architects Through the Photonic Programme

We partnered with Aflac to design and deliver the Photonic program, empowering architects with advanced skills and mentoring to elevate engineering excellence and drive innovation.

Client

Aflac


Industry

Insurance


Area

Software Development


Need

Support architects to enhance engineering excellence


THE CHALLENGE

Architects at Aflac, responsible for critical architectural decisions and delivering exceptional solutions, were eager to excel in their roles. Recognizing this, Aflac identified the need to support newly promoted senior architects through a talent development program that:

– Provided the latest architectural and technical skills.
– Fostered leadership capabilities.
– Established consistent architecture and enterprise engineering practices.
– Improved the quality and maintainability of applications.
– Cultivated a culture of continuous learning.

This initiative aimed to ensure that architects were well-equipped to make significant contributions across the organization.

THE SOLUTION

Collaborating closely with Aflac’s talent development team and current technical leaders, Neueda co-designed a comprehensive 10-month training program. Key components included:

Expert-led sessions on the latest topics in cloud engineering and software architecture.
A masterclass series featuring industry specialists, such as Mark Richards and Kevlin Henney.

The solution was built on a foundation of architecture and enterprise engineering practices, enabling engineers to enhance the quality and maintainability of applications and platforms through improved design, tailored to Aflac’s specific needs.

DELIVERY

The program was delivered in-person over 10 months, with one session per month. Technical topics covered included:

– Where has the design phase gone?
– Core design patterns.
– Microservices design patterns.
– Domain-driven design.
– Automated acceptance testing.
– Data architecture approaches.
– Architecture modeling.
– Architecting for non-functional requirements. AWS best practices.

The classroom sessions were complemented by guest speakers and hackathons, providing participants with hands-on, practical experience.

RESULTS

The program enabled Aflac to:

– Enhance the quality, consistency, and maintainability of its applications through the adoption of enterprise-wide architecture and engineering practices.
– Foster leadership growth, with senior architects mentoring newer team members and making impactful architectural decisions.
– Cultivate a culture of continuous learning through guest speakers and hackathons.
– Position itself as an innovation leader in Belfast.

This structured approach ensured that each aspect of the program effectively addressed Aflac’s objectives, aligning with the format of Neueda’s customer stories.