Lab 17: Conducting a Well-Architected Review

Objective

Conduct a Well-Architected review of the multi-tier application built throughout the bootcamp, identify high-risk and medium-risk issues across all six pillars, and create a prioritized improvement plan.

Architecture Diagram

This lab does not build new infrastructure. Instead, you review the architecture you have built across all previous modules:

Architecture under review (from previous modules):
    ├── VPC with public/private subnets across 2 AZs (Module 03)
    ├── EC2 instances in Auto Scaling group behind ALB (Modules 04, 07)
    ├── RDS PostgreSQL Multi-AZ (Module 06)
    ├── DynamoDB table (Module 06)
    ├── S3 buckets with encryption and lifecycle policies (Module 05)
    ├── Lambda functions with API Gateway (Module 09)
    ├── ECS Fargate services (Module 10)
    ├── CloudFormation/SAM templates (Module 11)
    ├── CI/CD pipeline with CodePipeline (Module 12)
    ├── KMS encryption, Secrets Manager, CloudTrail, GuardDuty, Config (Module 13)
    ├── CloudWatch dashboards, alarms, X-Ray tracing (Module 14)
    ├── Cost allocation tags, budgets (Module 15)
    └── AWS Backup, DR strategy (Module 16)

Your deliverable: a Well-Architected review report with findings and improvement plan.

Prerequisites

Completed all modules from Phase 1 through Phase 4 (Modules 01 through 16)
Completed Module 17: The AWS Well-Architected Framework lesson content
Signed in to the AWS Management Console as the bootcamp-admin IAM user
Access to the AWS Well-Architected Tool in the console

Duration

90 minutes

Goal

Conduct a structured Well-Architected review of the bootcamp architecture using the AWS Well-Architected Tool. Evaluate the architecture against all six pillars, identify high-risk and medium-risk issues, and create a prioritized improvement plan that addresses the most critical gaps.

Constraints

You must use the AWS Well-Architected Tool in the console to conduct the review (not a manual document-only assessment).
You must evaluate at least three pillars in depth (answering all questions for those pillars in the tool).
Your improvement plan must identify at least five high-risk or medium-risk issues across at least three different pillars.
For each identified issue, you must propose a specific remediation action, estimate the effort (low, medium, high), and assess the business impact (low, medium, high).
Your improvement plan must prioritize issues using a risk matrix (impact vs. effort) and justify the sequencing.
You must save a milestone in the Well-Architected Tool to establish a baseline for future reviews.

Reference Links

Deliverables

Well-Architected Tool workload with:
- A workload defined in the tool representing the bootcamp architecture
- At least three pillars evaluated with all questions answered
- A saved milestone establishing the baseline
Review report (Markdown document) containing:
- An executive summary of the architecture's overall Well-Architected posture
- A findings table listing each HRI and MRI identified, organized by pillar
- For each finding: the pillar, the question, the risk level (HRI or MRI), a description of the gap, and the proposed remediation
- A trade-off analysis section discussing at least two trade-offs you identified (for example, cost vs. reliability, security vs. agility)
Improvement plan containing:
- A prioritized list of at least five improvements, ordered by a risk matrix (high impact + low effort first)
- For each improvement: the pillar, the specific change, the estimated effort (low/medium/high), the business impact (low/medium/high), and any dependencies on other improvements
- A recommended timeline for implementing the improvements (immediate, next sprint, next quarter)

Validation

Confirm the following:

A workload exists in the AWS Well-Architected Tool with at least three pillars evaluated
A milestone is saved in the tool establishing the baseline
Your review report identifies at least five HRI or MRI findings across at least three pillars
Each finding includes a specific remediation action with effort and impact estimates
Your improvement plan prioritizes findings using a risk matrix
Your report includes a trade-off analysis discussing at least two cross-pillar trade-offs

Cleanup

Keep the Well-Architected Tool workload. It serves as a baseline for future reviews and does not incur charges.
Do not delete any resources from previous modules. This lab is a review exercise, not an infrastructure change.

✅Tip: The Well-Architected Tool is free to use. Workloads and milestones are stored indefinitely at no cost. Keep your workload and add new milestones as you make improvements in future modules.

Challenge (Optional)

Extend this lab with the following advanced exercises:

Apply the Serverless Applications Lens to the Lambda and API Gateway components of your architecture (from Module 09). Compare the findings from the Serverless Lens to the general Framework findings. Identify any additional HRIs specific to serverless workloads.
Conduct a second review from the perspective of a different stakeholder. For example, review the architecture as a security auditor (focusing on the Security Pillar) or as a finance manager (focusing on the Cost Optimization Pillar). Document how the priorities differ based on the stakeholder's perspective.
Create a CloudFormation template that automates the remediation of one HRI you identified. For example, if the review found that S3 buckets lack versioning, create a Config rule with automatic remediation that enables versioning on non-compliant buckets.

These challenges combine Well-Architected concepts with serverless, security, and IaC practices from previous modules.

AWS Bootcamp: From Novice to Architect Author: Samuel Ogunti License: CC BY-NC 4.0

Lab: Module 17: The AWS Well-Architected Framework

Lab 17: Conducting a Well-Architected Review