Future State Architecture

Future state architecture describes the expected enterprise at a future milestone—often three to five years—incorporating planned retirements, new platforms, and process changes. It connects vision to sequenced work packages and organizational change. Future states should declare assumptions about vendor, regulatory, and market conditions.

In Practice

Larkinized LLC uses future-state views in executive storytelling and board updates alongside portfolio roadmaps. Scenarios handle uncertainty when critical assumptions may change. Future state refreshes follow major strategy pivots or M&A events.

Example

A 2028 future state architecture shows cloud-native core banking with retired mainframe modules and unified fraud analytics.